No 

I 8111 glad to lend my books, but can not loml 
a second time to persons who do not take good 
care of them, and return them promptly. 

Thk Golden Role of Oeoee— When you are 
done \fith the book, return it to the sanr filnc 
you took it from. 

lAMES M. COiVILY. 



P^LiBRARY OF Congress.^ 
^ _ ^ 

I ■ "" c„:.: E4-'5 I 

I SHELF ^^...'^US- I 



-=' UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

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/ ■ 



MBMOEIAL ADDEESSES 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 

OF 

WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN, 

(A SENATOR FROM MAINE,) 

DELIVEItED IN THE 

SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

^ A 41ST CONORESS, 2r> SESSION, 
f, 

DECEMBER 14, 1869. 




PUBLISHED BY ORDER OP CONGRESS. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1870. 



WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 



PEAYEE BY THE CHAPLAIN, EEV. J. P. NEWJIAN, D.D. 

Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in aU genera- 
tions. Before the mountains were brought forth, or evei' 
Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from ever- 
lasting to everlasting, Thou art God. Older than the earth, 
older than the stars, older than the angels, Thou art God 
eternal and blessed forevermore. But upon all things earthly 
is impressed vanity, and we deplore the sin which has 
doomed us to sorrow and to death. Empires pass away, 
and humanity, generation after generation, is carried to the 
charnel-house of departed ages. But we return Thee hearty 
thanks, gracious God, that, notwithstanding this general 
doom, the noble and the immortal part of man shall sur- 
vive the tomb. We return Thee thanks for all that was 
great in intellect and noble in heart and philanthropic in 
life, for aU that was patriotic and loyal in the public services, 
of him whose memory shall be commemorated to-day. And 
grant that by this dispensation of Thy providence these 
Senators may grow wise; that they may so live and so die 
that their lives shall be their eulogy; that iu their death 
the people shall rise up and call them blessed ; and that 
God maj^ pronounce His benediction upon their eternity. 
Eegard in Thy tender mercy those who were near and dear to 
the departed. May they be infolded in the arms of Thine affec- 
tion and protection. Command Thy blessing upon Thy servant, 



REMARKS OF MR. MORRILL ON 



the President of this Eepublic ; upon Thy servant who pre- 
sides here; upon these Senators; upon all that are in authority; 
and upon the whole nation ; for Jesus' sake. Amen. 



EESIAEKS BY ME. MORRILL, OF 5LMNF,. 

3fr. President: One who at your adjournment in April had 
in this Chamber become a familiar presence, a jiervading 
influence, comes not again at your reassembling in Decem- 
ber. The dull toll of far-off beUs, the visible emblems of 
mourning, public and private, have spoken of bereavement, 
and touch our hearts with deepest sensibility. 

These swiftly-repeating vicissitudes in the personal desti- 
nies of those associated here; a consciousness of the num- 
bers of the wise, the patriotic, the trusted, who of late have 
departed hence — who come no more to these councils — op- 
press as with the weight of a common misfortune; and now 
a new absence at the roll-call to earthly duty inflicts a fresh 
pang of regret. A great public sorrow afflicts the people of 
my State — a sense of bereavement the nation. In especial 
sympathy with the common misfortune the Senate pauses to 
pay its tribute of respect to its eminent dead, the marked 
lineaments of whose form and character are vivid still in 
the memory, who so lately stood here iii his high ofiice, in 
the prominence of native gifts and of a rich aud varied 
experience, challenging the respect, the confidence, and the 
admiration of his countrymen. 

On the 8th day of September last, after a career pre-emi- 
nent in professional and public life, beginning with his earliest 
manhood, and having been constantly associated with the 
courts, and ofiQcially in the public councils of the State and 
nation, at the zenith of his fame and in the fidl possession 
of his intellectual foculties, William Pitt Fessenden was called 
away from the scenes of earth. 



■WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 



The public career of Mr. Fesseiideu was uot in any sense 
problematical ; and in this presence, a witness to so consid- 
erable a portion of it, and in its just prominence, so inti- 
mately associated with the great events of our more recent 
history, analysis of it would seem to be quite needless; 
while properly to other hands and other occasions it may 
be left adequately to portray those marked elements of his 
character from which sprang his public eminence. 

His years of activity were divided between public and pro- 
fessional life, to the latter of which in early years he consecra- 
ted himself with singular fidelity, his passionate fondness for it 
remaining long after the exigencies of the public service had 
severed all practical connection with it. While the former was 
uot wholly uninterrupted and exclusive, it was sufficiently con- 
tinuous and devoted for contact, connection, and familiarity 
with the politics and public events of the day. 

Entering the legislature of his State at twenty-six, he was 
returned at short intervals, was early a member of Congress, 
again in the legislature, then advancing to this body, then, 
briefly, minister of state, and finally again in the Senate, 
where it may not unfitly be said his service was continuous 
from its first beginning to its final close. 

His early advent into the legislature of his State was notice- 
able for the concession of the party in power to his eloquence 
and acquirements, of positions of distinction and influence 
which by usage belonged to political friends, to riper years, 
and larger experience. 

On his entrance into the national House of Eepresentatives, 
himself among the youngest of its members, he at once partici- 
pated in the important debates of that body, attracting notice 
as a gracefid orator and skillful debater, and for the compre- 
hension and maturity of his opinions. 

His pre-eminent public career dates, strictly, from his en- 
trance into this body in 1854, as from this time he gave himself 
exclusively to his public duties. 



ItEJIAIJKS OF MR. MORKILL ON 

Simultaucously with liis advent to the Senate arose in Con- 
i^iess that class of public questions wliich were calculated to 
test the temper of his affections, the tenacity of his opinions, 
and the steadiness of his purpose. Kansas-Nebraska, the 
stalking-horse of slavery, wliich luider an affectation of de- 
fending the Constitution was to conceal the guilty purpose of 
subversion of democratic republican institutions, afforded an 
opportunity for the exhibition of those powers of analysis, 
logic, and invective which have rarely been surpassed in any 
legislative body. Here was audacions menace, significant hint 
to overt treason which was to follow; here were the first mut- 
terings of the storm that was to burst upon the nation amid 
the convulsions of civil war. This audacious spirit of bad faith, 
usurpation, and oppression, leading an assault upon popular 
rights, could not fail to provoke the intensest hostility in one, 
the very elements of whose being made him intolerant of tvery 
species of infldeiity, violence, and cruelty. 

The efiect here of his memorable speech on that occasion 
was electric, and contributed, it may not be doubted, to swell 
the tide of i)opidar indignation and resolution of the great 
national uprising of 1850, followed in after years by memorable 
deeds in arms. 

Not aggressive in spii-it, not an advanced radical reformer 
even, whatever may be said of his constitutional conservatism, 
he was, by the native simplicity of his tastes, his education 
aud habits of life, and better still, by his enlightened sense of 
justice and hatred of wrong, always the able and fearless advo- 
cate of civil and religions liberty. Eepublican institutions had 
no truer conservator and oppression no more determined and 
nncompromising opponent than William Pitt Fessendeu. 

From this time forward to the close his views were given 
upon most questions of importance, and his influence upon the 
legislation and policy of the country during its eventful strug- 
gle of civil war was conspicuous. Internal revenue, the cur- 
rency, the banking system, and finally reeonstmction, all 



WILLIAM PITT PESSENDEN. 



received the toiicli of bis liaud aud the iufluence of his 
genius. 

In sentiment Mr. Fessenden was thoroughly anti-slavery. 
It was his tuberitauce, and through life he was faithful to it. 
In all the attempts of slavery for recognition and protection 
his opposition was inflexible. When to be anti-slavery was to 
be anti- American, be was anti-slavery; when bis party would 
comijromise, be dissented; when repeal was demanded in its 
interest, be protested; when, later, on the eve of rebellion, 
conference and concession were proposed, he woidd have no 
participation in it, and would yield no assent; and when war 
came for separation and independent slave power, be saw in it 
the nation's opportunity ; and that initial measure for universal 
emancipation — abolition of slavery in the national capital — 
bad his approval and support. The abolition of slavery here 
be declared was a "measure that bad ever been dear to his 
heart;" and later, on a kindred question, ho said: "I tell the 
President from my place here as Senator, and I tell the gen- 
erals of the army, that they must reverse their practice of re- 
turning fugitive slaves who come within our lines." 

The lineaments of Mr. Fessenden's character were marked 
and clear. He was endowed with an acute understanding, 
lively sensibility, and intense personality and self-reliance. 
Penetration and insight eminently characterized bis genius. 
He was through with his preparatory course, bad graduated 
from college, studied his profession aud entered upon its prac- 
tice, and bad gained distinction in the departments of law and 
legislation at an age when most minds are just beginning to 
contemplate their intricacies and ascend their rugged steeps. 

There was next to nothing in his life, public or private, 
which was factitious or artificial. His professional success 
and bis influence in State and national legislation were by no 
accident, nor by the employment of adventitious supports, but 
by the inherent energy and force of bis mental constitution. 
He was emiuent in his profession, as in him were combined 



REMAEKS OF MK. MOKRILL ON 



tboso intellectual facilities and mental habits which go to 
make the lawyer, the statesman, and the public administrator. 
Had ho possessed more sentiment and imagination and greater 
enthusiasm for the ideal, it would doubtless have increased his 
popularity, while it may be questioned if his reliability as a 
citizen, his distinction as a lawyer, or his eminence as legis- 
lator, woidd have been greater. 

In him the intensely practical ever so asserted its prepond- 
erance over the ideal in action as to present to superficial 
observance a lack of the finer sensibilities. He did nothing 
from impulse, and on the most exciting occasions could be cool 
and fi'ee from ureprcssible restlessness ; but it was the calm of 
high resolve, persistent and tenacious, in its trium^ih over 
passion and sentiment. He was nevertheless susceptible to 
the gentler influences; a most genial companion, gentle, ten- 
der, and affectionate in his family, and had delight in the 
elegant arts — sculpture, painting, and poetry. 

Mr. Fessenden was not a theorist; the visions of abstract 
speculation did not inspire him with confidence. He saw 
passing events as it were in the retrospect, and was little 
aifected by the factitious circumstances and excitements of the 
moment. He was not especially deferential to the authority of 
precedent or tradition, nor readily attracted by novelties or 
specious pretenses of reform, and fearlessly applied to all 
propositions for his action or assent the rigor of his accus- 
tomed methods of induction and analysis. 

His character rested on a granite basis, and sustained the 
structure of a lofty public virtue and private integrity, while 
au inflexible personal independence kept guard over the intel- 
lect and conscience, and challenged the advance alike of fiiend 
and foe to this seat of his power and secret of his success. It 
would have been impossible for him, like his great namesake, 
the premier of George III, to recover office, to acquire or retain 
place or power, by a concession of his principles or of a point 
of honor. No public man ever more heroically followed the 



"WILLIAM PITT FESSENDSN. 



leadership of his reason and judgment, and with a loftier dis- 
dain of inferior guidance. 

His mind and method were of the judicial order. He did 
not defer to the decision of the popular judgment as the sum 
of political wisdom and the inevitable law of duty. His o-mi 
and not the public sense was his rule of action as a Senator. 
He paid little court to the people, and practiced no artifices 
and employed no gratuities to enlist them in his interests or 
purposes. And he did not sway the masses so much by the 
sublimity of his sentiments as he inspired confidence and 
admiration by the dignity of his manners, the clearness of 
his understanding, and the purity of his life. 

That he possessed ambition was doubtless true, while 
equaUy true it was that he was free from all suspicion that 
his ambition had overcome his judgment or betrayed his 
public virtue. He had little ambition for mere power, and 
less use for it. Patronage he did not covet or employ 
as a support; nor had the greed of gain, nor the desire of 
accumulation, power over him as a man, a citizen, or public 
servant. 

If excellence in oratory is to be determined by its instant 
effect, Mr. Fesseuden was in this entitled to high rank. His 
style was clear and close; his reasoning concise; his language 
simple and natural; his sarcasm keen and pungent. His 
speeches were calculated and designed for present effect, and 
never seem to have been elaborated with a view to their 
appearance in print. Taken by no sudden impulse, poised in 
debate on his intellect and reason, he was never vehement 
rarely yielding to strong emotions, and only when pressed 
by antagonism strongly assailing his convictions or impinging 
his personal independence. On such occasions he exhibited 
the amplitude of his powers and the intensity of his nature. 
Skepticism and infidelity were foreign to his mental consti- 
tution. Thoughtful and sincere, with characteristic independ- 
ence of creeds and traditions, his was a nature to feel the 



10 KEMAEKS OF ME. SUMNEE ON 



religious seutimcnt strongest as it dwells apart in the silence of 
the soul. In his recent touching eulogy hei'e of his cherished 
friend, with whom he had long been associated, are to bo 
found utterances of his profoiuul faith in God and of the 
Christian's hope of endless and more exalted life. 

Among the distinguished characters who shall illustrate the 
annals of our times historj' will assign William Pitt Fessendcn 
a conspicuous place. Thi'ough all his public life and services 
there shines the luster of a gifted and noble manhood, of a 
tried patriotism, and of disinterested devotion to worthy ends 
and aims. A steady leader, a safe counselor, a pure and con- 
siderate patriot, an eminent statesman, a true man and friend, 
has gone to his reward. 

Mr. President, I submit the following resolutions: 

Hcsoh'cd, Tliat tbo Senate receive with deep regret the announcement of 
the death of William Pitt Fcssenden, late a member of this body. 

Jtcsolvcd, That the members of the Senate will manifest their respect for 
the memory of the deceased by wearing the usual badge of mourning. 

Itcsoh'cd, Tha,t these proceedings be communicated to the House of Kcp- 
reseutatives. 



REMARKS BY ME. SUJIMSR, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mr. President : A seat in this Chamber is vacant. But this 
is a very inadequate expression for the present occasion. Much 
more than a seat is vacant. There is a void difficult to measure, 
as it will be difficidt to fill. Always eminent from the begin- 
ning, Mr. Fcssenden during these latter years became so large 
a part of the Senate, that without him it seems to be aditl'erent 
body. His guiding judgment, his ready i^ower, his presence so 
conspicuous in debate, are gone, taking away from this Cham- 
ber that identity which it received so considerably from him. 

Of all the present Senate one only besides myself witnessed 
his entry into this Chamber. I can not forget it. He came in 
the midst of that terrible debate on the Kansas and Nebraska 



■n-ILLlAM PITT FESSENDEN. H 

bill by which the country was convulsed to its center, and his 
arrival had the efi'cct of a re-enforcement on a field of battle. 
Those who stood for Freedom then were few in numbers— not 
more than fourteen, while thii'ty-seven Senators in solid column 
voted to bi-eak the faith originally plighted to Freedom and to 
overturn a time-honored landmark, opening that vast Mesopo- 
tamian region to the curse of Slavery. Those anxious days 
are with difficulty comprehended by a Senate where Freedom 
rules. One more in our small number was a sensible addition. 
We were no longer fourteen, but fifteen. His reputation at the 
bar, and his fome in the other House gave assurance which 
was promptly sustained. He did not wait, but at once entered 
Into the debate with all those resoiu'ces which afterwards 
became so famous. The scene that ensued exhibited his readi- 
ness and coorage. While saying that the people of the North 
■were fatigued with the threat of disunion — that they consid- 
ered it as " mere noise and nothing else," he was interrupted 
by Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, always ready to speak for 
Slavery, exclaiming, " If such sentiments as yours prevail I 
want a dissolution right away" — a characteristic intrusion 
doubly out of order — to which the new-comer rejoined, ^' Do 
not delay it on my account; do not delay it on account of any- 
body at the North." The effect was electric; but this incident 
was not alone. Douglas, Cass, and Butler interrupted only 
to be worsted by one who had just ridden into the lists. The 
feelings of the other side were expressed by the Senator from 
South Carolina, who after one of the flashes of debate which 
he had provoked exclaimed : " Very well, go on ; I have no 
hope of you." All this will be found in the Globe, precisely 
as I give it, but the Globe could not picture the exciting 
scene — the Senator from IMaine erect, firm, immovable as a 
jutting promontory against which the waves of ocean tossed 
and broke in dissolving spray. There he stood. Not a Sena- 
tor, loving Freedom, who did not feel on that day that a 
champion had come. 



J3 IlEMAEKS OF MR. STTMNEK ON 

This scene so brilliant in character, illustrates Mr. Fessen- 
don's long career in the Senate. All present were moved, 
while those at a distance were less affected. Ilis speech, 
which was argumentative, direct, and pungent, exerted more 
influence on those who heard it than on those who only read 
it, vindicating his place as debater rather than orator. This 
place he held to the end without a superior — without a peer. 
Nobody could match him in immediate and incisive reply. 
His words were swift, and sharp as a cimeter, or, borrowing 
an illustration from an opposite quarter, he " shot flying" and 
with unerring aim. But while this great talent secured for 
him always the first honors of debate, it was less important 
with the country, which, except in rare instances, is more im- 
pressed by ideas and by those forms in which truth is manifest. 

The Senate has changed much from its original character, 
when, shortly after the formation of the National Government, 
a Nova Scotia paper, in a passage copied by one of our own 
journals, while declaring that the habits of the people here 
are very favorable to oratory, could say, "There is but one 
assembly in the whole range of the Federal Union in 
which oratory is deemed unnecessary, and, I believe, even 
absurd and obtrusive, to wit, tlie Senate, or upper house of 
Congress. They are merely a deliberative meeting, in which 
every man delivers his concise opinion, one leg over the other, 
as they did in the first Congress, when an harangue was a 
great rarity." [United States Gazette, PMladelpMa, December 
31, 1789.] Speech was, then, for business and immediate 
effect in the Chamber. Since then the transformation has 
proceeded — speech becoming constantly more important — until 
now, without neglect of business, the Senate has become a 
center from which to address the country. A seat here is a 
lofty puliiit with a mighty sounding-board, and the whole 
wide- spread people is the congregation. 

As Mr. Fesscuden rarely spoke except for business, what he 
said was restrained in its influence, but it was most effective 



■WILLIAM PITT FESSENBEN. 13 



in this Chamber. Here was his empire and his undisputed 
throne. Of perfect integrity and austerest virtue, he was 
inaccessible to those temptations which in various forms beset 
the avenues of public life. Most faithfidly and constantly did 
he watch the interests intrusted to him. Here he was a model. 
Holding the position of chairman of the Finance Committee, 
while it yet had those double duties which are now divided 
between two important committees, he became the guardian 
of the national treasury, both in its receipts and its expendi- 
tures, so that nothing was added to it or taken from it without 
his knowledge, and how truly he discharged this immense 
trust all will attest. Nothing could leave the Treasury with- 
out showing a passport. This service was the more momentous 
from the magnitude of the transactions involved, for it was 
during the whole period of the war, when appropriations 
responded to loans and taxes— all being on a scale beyond 
precedent in the world's history. On these questions, some- 
times so sensitive and difficult and always so grave, his 
influence was beyond that of any other Senator and constantly 
swayed the Senate. All that our best generals were in arms 
he was in the financial field. 

Absorbed in his great duties and confined too much by the 
training of a, profession which too often makes its follower 
slave where he is not master, he forgot sometimes that cham- 
pionship which shone so brightly when he first entered the 
Senate. lU-health came with its disturbing influence, and, 
without any of the nature of Hamlet, his conduct at times 
suggested those words by which Hamlet pictures the short- 
comings of life. Too often, in his case, "the native hue of 
resolution was sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," and, 
perhaps, I might follow the words of Shakespeare further, and 
picture "enterprises of great pith and moment, which, with 
this regard, their current turned awry and lost the name of 
action." 

Men are tempted by the talent which they possess, and he 



14 KEMAKKS OF MR. TRUMBULL ON 

could not resist the impulse to employ, sometimes out of place, 
those extraordinary po^N'ers which he commanded so easily. 
More penetrating than grasping, he easily pierced the argu- 
ment of his opponent, and, once engaged, he yielded to the 
excitement of the moment and the joy of conflict. His words 
warmed, as the Olympic wheel caught fire in the swiftness of 
the race. If, on these occasions, there were sparkles which 
fell where they should not have fallen, they cannot be remem- 
bered now. Were he still among us, face to face, it were 
better to say, in the words of that earliest recorded recon- 
ciliation : 

"Let us no luoro conteml nor blamo 
Eacli other, blamed enough elsewhere, but strive 
In offices of love how we may lighten 
Each other's burden in our share of woe." 

Error and frailty checker the life of man. If this were not 
so earth would be heaven, for what could add to the happiness 
of life free from error or frailty 1 The Senator we moiu-n was 
human ; but the error and frailty which belonged to him often 
took their color from virtue itself. On these he needs no 
silence, even if the grave which is now closing over him did 
not refuse its echoes except to what is good. 



REMARKS BY SIR. TRUMBULL, OF ILLINOIS. 

Mr. President: "While these last rites are taking place, even 
though unsolicited, my feelings would not have allowed the 
occasion to pass away without laying upon the grave of our 
departed brother some token of my affection and regard ; and 
though the flowers I bring are gathered by the wayside, they 
represent a love and a respect no less sincere than those which 
have been more skillfully selected and arranged for the occa- 
sioTi. Others have spoken, and trulj% of the loss which the 
Senate and the nation have sustained in the death of Mr. 



Fesseiiden. His clear intellect, quick perception, and incisive 
manner of speaking gave him great power in a legislative 
body, and when added to these are purity of character, spot- 
less integrity, a high sense of honor, together with love of 
country and of liberty, you have the useful and accomplished 
statesman, and such was Mr. Fessenden. As a debater, en- 
gaged in the current business of legislation, the Senate has 
not had his equal in my time. No man could detect a soph- 
istry or perceive a scheme or a job quicker than he, and none 
possessed the power to expose it more effectually. He was a 
practical, matter-of-fact man; in other words, a business man, 
utterly abhorring all show, pretension, and humbug. He was 
laborious, careful, and painstaking; punctual and attentive to 
business, understood well the meaning of words, and was pre- 
cise in their use. 

Being a practical man he seldom if ever made what are 
called set speeches or orations. He never spoke except to the 
question before the Senate; and in controversies, whether with 
IJolitical adversaries or in regard to current business, he had 
no superior in the body. I well i-ecollect the estimate put 
upon Mr. Fessenden as a well-informed ready debater when I 
first came to the Senate. At that time it consisted of sixty- 
two members, of whom only fifteen were republicans. It was 
a time of high party excitement. The majority were domineer- 
ing and often offensive to members of the minority. They con- 
trolled the business of the Senate and could take their own 
time to assail minority Senators or the views they entertained, 
and it was not uncommon for members of the dominant party 
to go out of their way to seek controversies with and assail 
certain Senators in the minority less practiced in debate tban 
tliemselves, and over whom they supposed they could obtain 
some advantage; but they never sought controversies with 
Mr. Fessenden, and when a debate did incidentally spring up 
between him and some political oijponent, I have not forgotten 
how pleased and gratified his political associates were that the 



16 KEMAEKS OF ME. TEUMBULL ON 

discussion was in tlie hands of one so competent to maintain it 
on their part. 

No political friend ever feared the result of a discussion of 
auj' kind in which Mr. Fessenden was engaged. The period 
of his public services embraces the most important events 
which have occurred in our nation's history, and he was a 
prominent actor in them all. Either as the head of the Finance 
Comuuttee of this body, or as Secretary of the Treasury, he 
took a principal part in originating, maturing, and giWng prac- 
tical eifect to that financial policy which furnished the sinews 
by which the great rebellion was crushed. The war over, he 
took a leading part in the difficidt work of restoring order to a 
country torn asunder by four years of remorseless civil war, 
and was especially conspicuous in those measures which we all 
trust are soon to bring into harmonious relations all the States 
of the Union. As a public officer and a Senator he was scru- 
pulously carefiO of the interests and the honor of the Govern- 
ment. So zealous was he in this respect, and so little patience 
had he with any attempt to take advantage of the Govern- 
ment, or with demagogism or shams of any kind, that some 
attributed to him an austerity and irritability which did not 
belong to him as a man. It was only as an official that he 
sometimes seemed hard and austere. As an individual in the 
private walks of life he was full of sympathy and kindness 
and charity. When the sad tidings of his death flashed across 
the land, its i^ublic men and we who were his associates were 
not the only ones who felt the shock, but it fell with still 
heavier force on many an obscure and lowly one who had 
enjoyed his favor and been the recipient of his unostentatious 
bounty. In the discharge of public duty he stood erect, un- 
moved alike by threats of vengeance or promises of favor. 
In private life he was kind and gentle and obliging. 

But I did not rise so much to si)eak of the great abilities and 
noble traits of character which have made Mr. Fessenden's 
death to be felt as a national calamity, as of the personal loss 



WILLIAM PITT FESSKNDEN. 17 



which I myself feel at his departure. Ouly three others are 
uow left who were here whea I came to the Senate, and there 
is but one who came with me. There has been no one here 
since I came to whom I oftener went for counsel and whose 
opinions I have been accustomed more to respect than those of 
our departed friend. There were occasions during our fourteen 
years' service together when we differed about minor matters 
and had controversies for the time unpleasant, but I never lost 
my respect for him nor do I believe he ever did his for me. 
He was my frieud, more closely perhaps the last year or two 
than ever before. Like other Senators, I shall miss him in the 
daily transactions of this chamber, and perhaps more than any 
other shall miss him as the one person from whom I most fre- 
quently sought advice. I am not one of those, however, who 
believe that constitntional liberty, our free institutions, or the 
progress of the age depend upon any one individual. Wheu 
the great and good Lincoln was stricken down I did not believe 
that the Government woidd fail or liberty perish. Though his 
loss may have subjected the country to many trials it woidd not 
otherwise have had, still our Government stands and liberty 
survives. 

Another has taken Mr. Fessenden's place; others will soon 
occupy ours, to discharge their duties better perhaps than we 
have d(me, and he among us to-day will be fortunate indeed, if 
when his work on earth is done he shall leave behind him a life 
so pm-e and useful, a reputation so unsullied, a patriotism so 
ardent, and a statesmanship so conspicuous as William Pitt 
Fessenden. 



REMAEKS BY MR. ANTHONY, OF RHODE ISLAND. 

Mr. President : It is not with the expectation of adding any- 
thing to what has been said, but rather for the gratification of 
my own feelings, that I rise to add one more tribute to the 



23 KEMAllKS OF UK. ANTHONY ON 

worth of our friend, whose face we shall not again see with 
mortal eyes. Uis history has been recited by those who knew 
liiiu from his youth, his character has been depicted by those 
who loved liim. Much of that history x>assed uuder our own 
observation; and all of that character was appreciated and 
admired by those who were associated with him in this body, 
and who, by general consent, accorded to him a place second to 
that of no man in it. 

In rendering my cordial assent to all that has been spoken in 
praise of Mr. Fessenden I only repeat of him dead what I 
have said of him living. It is the general fortune of eminent 
public men to be greatly slandered in life and to be unduly 
eulogized in death. If Mr. Fessenden did not altogether 
escape the former, history will admit that even the high praise 
that has been pronounced upon him to-day, is not exaggerated, 
is not the outpouring of personal friendship, which seeks relief 
from its sorrow in the extravagance of eulogy, but the deliber- 
ate judgment which those who were long associated with him 
had formed of his character. That judgment which is ex- 
pressed in words after his deatli, was expressed in acts during 
his life. The great weight which his counsels carried in this 
chamber, the uniform respect paid to his opinions, and the con- 
spicuous positions assigned to him, all attest the estimation in 
which he was held. And this estimation was undoubtedly 
founded on real merit, for Mr. Fessenden had not the arts of 
]>opularity, and perhaps held in too light esteem those appli- 
ances of suavity which often cover pretension and superficial- 
ness, but by which real merit does not sometimes disdain to 
strengthen itself. Hence he relied upon facts fairly presented 
and upon arguments logically adduced, for the success of a 
measure, and, when these failed, he did not resort to personal 
solicitations or individual persuasions. And as he did not 
make such appeals himself, so he did not yield to tliem when 
they came from others. I might recall to you some remarkable 
instances in which he argued for the convictions of his jiidg- 



WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. IQ 

meut, against all the force of personal solicitations, baclfcd by 
bis own sympatbies. Tbis temper of mind, tbis intellectual 
conscientiousness gave him, witb superficial observers, the 
iei)utation of indift'erence to x^ublic opinion. 

But tbis reputation was not deserved. On the contrary, I 
think that he was sensitive to public opinion, and honest praise 
or censure afi'ected hiiu, perhaps, the more because he would 
not purchase the one or conciliate the other by concessions that 
are generally regarded as venial. For that public opinion which 
is manufactured to order he bad great contempt, and flattery 
did not imjiose upon him; even to honest but transient iiublic 
opinion, founded on limited observation and shallow reasoning, 
Mr. Fessenden, I have sometimes thought, did not give the cou- 
sideraticn that was due; for this is not to be overlooked, in 
shaping legislation ; and under free institutions, where political 
parties are a necessity, statesmen cannot safely forget that they 
are also politicians, and that, working through the instrument- 
ality of party, something must be conceded to the strength- 
ening of that partj' which they hold to be ideiitilied with the 
best interests of the country; but genuine public opinion, the 
sentiment of thinking men, the deliberate judgment of the 
country, IMr. Fessenden held in profound respect; and although 
even to that he would not sacriflce bis conscientious convic- 
tions, he differed from it cautiously and reluctantly. 

By some, who knew him slightly, Mr. Fessenden was regarded 
as a haughty man. This he was not, iu any ofi'ensive sense of 
the word. He was grave and I'eserved; uncommonly quick of 
apprehension, he was impatient of the sometimes slower pro- 
cesses of other minds, and be carried bis iutolei'ance of pre- 
tense and sham to a fault — to a fault, because he sometimes 
confounded these with what were only the harmless peculiari- 
ties or even the deliberate judgments of others; but whatever 
he might claim for the conclusions to which he had brought his 
mind, he assumed no superiority for himself in reaching them. 
A truer, kinder heart beats in no living breast than that which 



20 llEMAKKS OF MR. ANTHONY ON 



HOW lies cold and pulseless. The universal affection in which 
he was held by those who sustained to hiui the relations of de- 
IXMulcnce and subordination is the best proof of this. 

It is not given to men to achieve perfection; else this would 
not be a state of discipline; but of those elements which go 
towards it few possess so many as did Mr. Fesseuden, conspic- 
uous less for the fleeting gTaces that adorn a (character thaii for 
the solid virtues that dignify and ennoble it; with small por- 
tion of the manner which the great and the little may alike put 
on, with much of the qiialities that only the great and the good 
possess. 

He will long be held in grateful and affectionate remem- 
brance for his mascidine and vigorous intellect, for his pure 
and honest statesmanship, for his careful and exact acquire- 
ment, for the independence which nothing could shake, for the 
integrity which nothing could corrupt ; and underlying all, for 
that sound common sense, that intellectual as well as moral 
rectitude, upon which, as upon a basis of enduring granite, 
rose the beautiful superstructure of his character. 

now often, Mr. President, during the troublous and perilous 
times during which you and I have been associated in the pub- 
lic councils, how often when clouds settled darkest upon us and 
dangers gathered thickest around us, have we felt to invoke 
the spirits of the mighty dead and to call ui)0u the fathers of 
the republic, that they would absent them " from felicity awhile," 
and lea\ing the mansions of eternal rest, mingle once more in 
the contests of earthly affairs, and teach us how to preserve 
the institutions which their wisdom and patriotism had estab- 
lished. And when, tirrning from the uuanswering dead to the 
living present, we have looked to those who were wisest in 
council, firmest in purpose, and purest in heart, never did we fail 
to recognize among them him whom we now lament. Audit 
seems to us that he is taken from us at a time when he is most 
needed, when the questions are impending that he best could 
grapple, when the problems are presented that he best could 



■n-ILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. OJ 



solve. We look aroimd for those who shall fill his place. Bnt 
there is One who doeth all things well. In the order of His 
l>rovidcnce it is uot permitted for any place long to remain va- 
cant ; whomever He takes away, He raises np others to fill the 
void that is left. So it was with Douglas; so it was with Colla- 
mer; so it was with Foot; so it was with Lincoln. So it will be 
with Fessenden. And so, Mr. President— long distant be the 
day— will it be with yon and with others, our wisest and our 
best. Men die, but their Avords are left on record, their works 
remain, their example survives. He who has made a record 
like that which we are now reviewing, he who has achieved a 
character like that which we now hold up to the youth of Amer- 
ica, may well say, when the supreme hour .arrives — 

" Non omnis inoriar, multaqiio pars mci 
Vitabit Libitiuam." 



REMARKS BY MR. WILLIAMS, OF OREGON. 

Mr. President: William Pitt Fessenden, though not without 
his faults, was in many respects a model Senator and states- 
man. Education and experience had cidtivated and matured 
his mental faculties, and to the consideration of every public 
question upon which he was called to act he brought a careful, 
enlightened, and independent judgment. Official association 
of more than ordinary intimacy enabled me to observe and 
appreciate those qualities of his character which too often dis- 
tinguish the ideal from the actual Senator. Of these the most 
striking, that which gave tone and complexion to the others, 
was his utter repugnance to every form of indirection and de- 
ceit, and his profound contempt for all the arts and appliances 
of the demagogue. Conscious of the rectitude of his own pur-- 
poses, and confident in the correctness of his own views, pop- 
ular clamor was to liiin as the breath of an idle wind, and 



22 EEMAKKS OF MR. WILLIAMS ON 

to argue that a proposed policy which he believed to be 
wrong would please the peojile, was to employ the weakest of 
means to iullucucc his sturdy judgment. Nothing seemed to 
disturb him more than an effort to carry through the Senate 
for ])artisau ends some measure which he conceived to be tin- 
reasonable or unjust; and I have seen him writhe with pain at 
the delivery of speeches here whose fallacies and false conclu- 
sions, though obvious to him, were plausible enough to impose 
upon the ignorant or mislead the unreflecting populace. Deep 
down in his nature was implanted an instinctive resistance to 
the (smiles of flattery as well as the frowns of disfavor, and by 
either he was as immovable as the mountain cliff whose 
rugged brow encounters the sunshine and the storm with 
equal indifference. 

Arising from one's intercourse with some men of irreproach- 
able character, there is a doubt as to the solidity of their 
moral structupe, a fear that in some unhappy moment temjit- 
ation may overj)ower them ; but no such doubts or fears 
obtruded themselves into the company of Mr. Fessendeu. 
Perfect faith in his integrity not only iiossessed all those 
who approached him, but from his presence there proceeded 
the perfect assurance that he was as much beyond the reach of 
corruption as the polished steel is beyond the reach of that 
rust which fastens itself upon the softer and baser metals. 
Wliile calumny with its thousand tongues discussed the pro- 
ceedings in this body ui)on the trial of the late President, there 
was none so wicked or malicious as to whisper that Mr. Fes- 
senden's motives upon that occasion were subject to sordid 
influences. Many questioned the legality and correctness of 
his opinion ; many were deeply pained at his vote ; but there 
was that in his solid and noble character that made it impos- 
sible to suppose that his convictions were not as pure in origin 
as they were fearless in expression. Some men whose i)ublic 
and official acts admit of no question allow themselves to be 
drawn into various irregularities and impurities of private lifef 



WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 23 

but lie was as free from dissipation and all its affiliated vices 
as he was free from contact with any scheme of jilundering or 
fraudulent legislation. Much is said about the corruption of 
Congress, a thousand times more than is true ; but be that as 
it may, it will be a great consolation to the famOy and friends 
of the departed Senator that through all the seductions and 
temptations of a long and varied political life, he came down 
to his grave fuU of years and full of honors, a pure and honest 
man. 

Intellectnally, Mr. Fessenden was among the foremost men 
of the country. Putting aside the discussion upon the slavery 
question, in which the in-e-euiiuence without dispute belongs to 
another, he towered in mind among those around him like 
Saul in form among his countrymen. While admitting his 
title to this distinction, candor compels me to say that upon 
any novel and exciting question w^here the road to success 
seemed to lie through the chances of recklessness and temerity, 
he did not possess the requisite qualifications for a great par- 
liamentary leader. He believed that caution was the parent 
of safety. He was so careful not to do wrong that sometimes 
he seemed afraid to do right. All that there was akin to cow- 
ardice in the nature of Mr. Fessenden is indicated by Shake- 
speare, when he says that — 

" Conscience makes cowards of us all." 

Prudence is not unfrequently mistaken for timidity, and it is 
Jiard to tell where one ends and the other begins; but that the 
deceased should be described as a prudent rather than a timid 
man, is evidenced by the fact that as to any untried experi- 
ment in legislation, while he thought little of himself, he was 
much concerned about its effect upon the safetj' and happiness 
of the people or the honor and peace of the country. One 
feature of the senatorial career of Mr. Fessenden deserves 
especial mention, and that is, he never indulged in anything 
of a sensational nature. He had no taste for legislative pyro- 



tcohuics. He liiid uo auibitiou to do soiuethiug simply to 
attract attention or to excite comment. All that he said and 
did was statesmanlike and business-like, and looked to some 
useful result. I may add, too, that he did not pretend to 
know everything or discuss every question beibre the Senate. 
Familiar and thoroughly conversant with most of the leading 
subjects of debate, particularly those relating to finance, he 
spoke as to them only when tlieie was a manifest propriety iu 
his speaking. There was no parade, pomposity, or tinsel about 
his speeches. French was his aversion, and iu my hearing he 
never made a Latin or poetical quotation. Greece and Eome 
he left with bis college exercises iu the classic shades of Bow- 
doin. Plain, simple, and unaifected in manner and habit, so 
he was in speech, and his style was as pure and transparent 
as the water of a New England brook. When Mr. Fessenden 
arose to address the Senate, it will not be irreverent to saj' 
that, so far as the subject under discussion was concerned, he 
was generally able to say, "Let there be light, and there was 
light." Clearness of expression more than anything else distin- 
guished his speeches, so that the ideas presented, instead of 
the words in which they were clothed, filled the mind of the 
hearer. One of the justices of the Supreme Court told me 
that many years ago he was associated with Mr. Fessenden in 
the trial of a cause. According to agreement the judge was 
to argue the law, for which he made elaborate preparation, 
and the late Senator was to state the facts. Mr. Fessenden 
made his statement, after which the court said that nothing, 
further was necessary on that side of the case. So clear, con- 
densed, and convincing was his presentation of the facts that 
no room was left for argument. As a debater our departed 
friend had few equals. Logic, sarcasm, and ridicule were 
employed as circumstances seemed to require, lie analyzed 
and dissipated an adverse argument. Clearness, vigor, and 
acuteness characterized Lis discourses. Saladin's sword was 
not sharper than his intellect. To describe him in the promis- 



cuous debates of this body I woidd borrow the laugTiage of 
Teiinysou: 

"When ouc woul<l aim an arrow foir, 
But sciul it .slackly from tlio string, 
Antl one would jiierce an oiter ring, 
And one an inner, here and there, 
And last the master bowman, he 
Would cleave the mark." 

Common sense and a practical view of things were the 
noticeable features of Mr. Fessenden's statesmanship. Poets, 
orators, and philosophers may rise to eminence by the display 
of a brilliant or eccentric genius, but no man can be a wise and 
safe statesman without a large endowment of common sense, 
or, in other words, of that clearness and comprehension of 
mind which enables him to form correct judgments. Theories 
and abstractions have been and are the bane of the Eepublic, 
and the less a man charged with publi(! affairs has to do with 
them the better for the country. Eight and wrong, as applied 
to political affairs, are oftentimes relative and not absolute 
terms. To-day a policy may be right and the circumstances of 
the people to be affected by it may wholly change, and then it 
may be wrong. So thought Mr. Fessenden. Free from all 
Utopian ideas, he acted ujion men and things as he found them, 
not as they might or ought to be; and his action carefully 
looked to the interests and welfare of all concerned. Some 
have said, with more or less truth, that he was conservative. 
Xo doubt he had some reverence for time-honored things. He 
loved, like many lawyers, to walk in the ancient ways; he had 
no pleasure in the work of destruction; he believed in letting 
well enough alone; but after all, the records of Congress will 
show that he was a friend to all those great modern reforms in 
government that have redeemed and puritied the Eepublic. 

There was a grace of modesty about the deportment of Mr. 
Fessenden. He had none of the "I am Sir Oracle" way about 
him. Nor had he any of that offensive dogmatism which age 
sometimes arrogates to itself, though he was frequently emphatic 
and severe in the statement of his views. He had no ambition 



26 REMARKS OF MR. WILLIAMS ON 

to iippear to be more thau he was. Aiiioug those who depouil 
npou newspapers for information he did not pass current at his 
real value. Keenly alive to any breath upon the purity of his 
character, he took no pains to cultivate notoriety. His reputa- 
tion was the iiroduct of no hot-bed ai)plianccs, but slowly and 
noiselessly it grew strong and high, like the tall pines of his 
native State, whose heads revel proudly in the highest winds of 
heaven. No little was said in the lifetime of our friend about 
the infirmity of his temper. That he was irritable at times is 
true. That he suffered much from physical debility is also true. 
He was a nervous and higlistriing man. He was compelled to 
struggle for self-control. Charity, however, and a conscious- 
ness of our own imperfections should draw a veil over this 
slight defect in one otherwise so good; and whatever his foibles 
were in this respect it can oidy be said of him "he but stum- 
bled ill the path we have in weakness trod." To show more 
of this let me state that I was a member of two committees of 
which he was chairman, and once only did his anger break out 
in hasty words toward me. Believing " that a friend should 
bear his friend's infirmities," I did not notice the matter; but 
in a few moments he came and in the kindest and most apolo- 
getic manner expressed his deep regret at the unpleasant 
occurrence. While 1 knew the deceased he di8i)layed little 
fondness for society. He rather shrank from the fashionable 
gatherings and gayeties of the capital. lie was not so easy 
of approach as some less agreeable to meet. There was a dig- 
nity in his bearing that reiiressed familiarity. His intimate 
associates were few, but to these he seemed strongly attached. 
Fawning and flattery were foreign to his nature. Those who 
conceived a dislike for him found their own reasons for a 
change of feeling. With much of truth it may be said of him 
that he was — 

" Lofty aud sour to those who loved him not, 
But, to those men tli.it sought him, sweet as summer." 

When the last session of Congress adjourned, in the seats 



WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 27 

nearest to miue sat two distinguished Senators, now gone. 
One is dead, and the other is in foreign lands seeking for 
health. Similar in many respects, they were the devoted 
friends of each other and friends of mine. While I am paying 
this humble tribute to the memory of the one whom death has 
taken, I would not forget the other and older friend stricken 
and away. Unhappily for the country his public life is ended, 
and the State that he so long represented here will be fortu- 
nate indeed if it finds another equal in intelligence, integrity, 
and iiower to occupy his place in this body. When the sun of 
a bright day declines below the horizon, a softened radiance 
lingers among the shadows of approaching night, and so it is 
when a good man goes down from a high position in the world 
to his resting-place in the grave. Streaming behind him is the 
effulgence of an exalted character to illumine the way for 
others and to lighten and soothe the sorrows of bereavement. 
Where the dei>arted statesman lived and died the bells 
have tolled their farewell peals; the pall, the hearse, and the 
funeral procession have passed and gone. "Ashes to ashes 
and dust to dust" have been spoken, and to her maternal 
bosom the earth has folded his mortal remains ; and now we, 
his fellow Senators, have met in this Chamber, where his per- 
son and voice were once so familiar, to celebrate the closing 
scenes. This is the last Of ceremony. Bowing our heads to 
the will of Providence, and striving to shun his few faults and 
emulate his many virtues, to the affection of those who loved 
him, to the gratitude of a country he served long and well, 
and to the safe-keeping of impartial history, with faith and 
pride we commit the memory and fame of William Pitt Fes- 
senden. 



EEMAEKS BY ME. MOEEILL, OF VEEMONT. 

3Ir. President: In this body, so comparatively few in num- 
bers, the sudden death of any member is sure to be felt, but 



28 REMARKS OF MR. MORRILL ON 

whcn ouc of the ripest and most experienced of its members is 
taken awaj', to return no more forever, each one of us counts 
the nation's loss as his own personal bereavement. The golden 
counsel, the enlightened guidance, commended by long years 
of daily association and by numberless acts of brotherly kind- 
ness, henceforth is to live only in our memory and speak only 
in the records of the past. Our country has lost in the death 
of Mr. Fessenden one of its wisest statesmen; and after fli'teen 
years of cordial intercourse and most friendly relations, public 
and private, my heart would reproach me if I failed to avow 
that I have lost a trusted friend, or refrained from attempting 
a brief tribute to his memory. The measures Avith which I 
had most to do in the other House brought me early and con- 
stantly into close relations with the late Senator, then on the 
Committee on Finance, where he succeeded Mr. Hunter, a very 
able and painstaking legislator; and having also boarded 
with him for several sessions of Congress at the same table, I 
came to know, and, therefore, although not always in entire 
sympathy with his views, to appreciate him highly. But I 
shall barely sketch two or three points, without attempting 
any complete analysis, of his life and character. 

That he had large capacity and a sagacious judgment the 
whole coiuitry gratefidly acknowledges, and as a public ser- 
vant no purer nor more incorruptible man, as I iim persuaded, 
ever came within the walls of the Capitol. No unlawful gain 
swelled his estate or swayed his opinions. In the rage of 
fiercest iiolitical conflicts no breath of suspicion has ever 
assailed his integrity or dimmed the brightness of his honor. 
Neither gain nor personal aggrandizement had any power to 
bend his lofty independence. It is not to be believed that he 
could have been induced to vary his political principles a 
hair's breadth, or to abandon any cherished opinion, for even 
the highest pinnacle of ambition our Government affords — a 
temptation which sometimes proves fatal to the successful career 
of iJublic men ; and for those who trimmed or accommodated 



tlieir position to win the stand-point of popular availability 
he could not conceal profound disgust. 

It seemed to have been bis sole ambition to be an American 
Senator, not inferior in dignity and virtue to the best Roman 
model, and few have so eminently and so usefully adorned the 
station or have met " the inevitable hour " with a more spotless 
reputation. 

Earely do we behold a man of such positive traits of charac- 
ter, moving always with such courageous and iudependent 
action, who was at the same time so thoroughly modest, as the 
late Senator Fessenden. While it must be admitted that as a 
debater he had no superior in the Senate, his appearance in 
debate was never heralded in advance by any note of prepara- 
tion, nor was he eager to discover and appropriate the silent 
but unmistakable approval which usually follows successful 
argument in the Senate. He was not a petty skirmisher, but 
gave his views from a broad and comprehensive stand-point. 
From long holding a leading position here, he was a frequent, 
thougb not an obtrusive speaker, neither courting nor shun- 
ning debate, and never seemed to feel that it was necessary to 
his reputation for him to mingle in every question that came 
up for discussion ; for he conceded to others the power of say- 
ing all that was necessary to be said, and when that had been 
said he was even irritated by a further consumption of time in 
any quarter. He made no speeches for distribution or for his 
State, except so far as his State was an integral part of the 
nation. His great aim was to forward the business immedi- 
ately before tlie Senate, especially such business as he had in 
charge, not often by a long and what is termed an exhaustive 
speech upon all the collateral relations of the subject, but he 
addressed himself mainly and with much energy to the point 
where he thought, after all, the whole question hinged, and 
the admirable swiftness and lucidity with which he did this 
work evinced that the minor points were not concealed from 
his view, though below his ambition to present. Tet when it 



30 



REMAKES OF MR. MORKILL ON 



became his duty, from his position iu the Senate or from his 
phice on committees, to lead or close a debate upon any im- 
portant question, then he showed his general mastery of affairs, 
and proved himself competent to handle the gravest issues, 
whether involving constitutional topics, finance, economy, 
peace, or war ; and all that he needed, whether springing from 
a fresli glimpse of the subject or drawn from the storehouse of 
his memory, appeared instantly ready for his use. 

Studious of facts, guilty of uo nonsense, reverent to the 
highest principles of liberty and republican policy, cogent and 
severely logical in argument, his speeches were always a 
marked feature in any debate; and if he encountered any op- 
position that might seem to check his career, there was often a 
sharpness and point in his rejoinders that caused him to be 
dreaded, as for any scores so received he could not contentedly 
long sit in arrears. Holding the formidable power of sarcasm 
within his compressed lips, it would sometimes escape in 
sport — quite as often in bitter earnest. This pungency in 
debate involved him in conflicts, not infrequently with his 
dearest friends, but they forgave him as he forgave them, and 
he never withheld a generous tribute to the real merits of even 
those with whom he was least in accord, being fastidiously 
observant not to forego praise in such directions, lest perhaps 
he shoidd be guilty of injustice. 

When he spoke, with nerves as firm and elastic as a Damas- 
cus blade, he bore himself proudly and with graceful ease, al- 
ways choosing language the most simple, chaste, and fluent to 
express his meaning; and few beholding his imperial bearing 
would have suspected his sensitive and retiring nature, or that 
something of nervous soreness and prostration followed his 
every effort. He sought no felicity of phraseology, except a 
direct and plumji expression of his meaning. For grandilo- 
quent oratory he had no taste, but of that manly, unaffected 
speech which is thoroughly in earnest to force conviction upon 
the hearers he was a consummate master. There was equal 



■WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 3I 

energy in bis tlionglit and manner of <loIivery, bnt it is not 
likely that he ever sought eloquence of any description, or if 
he did he must have sought the kind so well described by 
Bohngbroke when he said : 

" Eloqiieuoo must flow like a stream that is fed by an abuii<Jant spring, 
and not spout Ibrth a little frothy stream on some gaudy day and remain 
dry for the rest of the year." 

Those who were invited to his home found him hospitable, 
cordial, and wonderfidly fascinating in manner and conversa- 
tion, as he was a brilliant talker, often speaking with humor, 
and for more ready to unload his memory and display his 
learning, love of poetry, anecdote, and literaiy resources at 
his own fireside than in any more public theater. He made 
friends and watched their history and welfare with tenderest 
care, not for the selfish purpose of subordinating them to his 
private advantage, but because he found an appropriate place 
for them in his heart, and there they dwelt forever, in no 
peril of being displaced by other new-found tenants. Fitted 
to shine in society, he yet generally avoided it, to the deep 
regret of those who knew him best and loved him most, as 
they felt that he would have been more widely beloved had he 
been less of a recluse. 

The circumstances under which Mr. Fessenden was called to 
the Treasury Department, upon the resignation of Secretary 
Chase, will not soon be forgotten. Large sums of money were 
required at once; the postponed requisitions lying in wait 
were enormous, and the credit of the country seemed to be 
sinking beneath the heavy load. The premium on gold was 
doubled, and Government paper became almost valueless. 
General distrust pervaded all financial circles. Nothing but 
victories in the field promised any support or consolation to 
the country, and these victories were slowly and hardly to be 
won from those whose considerable successes had whetted the 
appetite for more. Pi'csident Lincoln tendered the otflce to 
Senator Fessenden, who hesitated long, fearing, as the dififi- 



inorAiiKs OF >ri:. jkhikill on 



ciiltics suiToundiiig the office were so imich more foraiidable 
tlian was generally supposed, that he should fail to meet the 
full expectations of the i)eople, while he was conscious that 
personally he had everything to lose and nothing to gain by 
leaving the Senate ; yet the urgency of his associates here on 
both sides of the Chamber, and the hardly less potential voice 
of the i)ress throughout the country, seldom summoning small 
men for great vacancies, at length secured his acceptance of 
the i)osition. The public had confidence in the man and his 
sterling integrity, and it was this confidence which enabled 
him to carry the Treasury safely through one of the most 
gloomy periods in the history of the late rebellion. He 
ai^pealed to the i)eo])lc for a loan, and they i-esponded with 
unprecedented liberality. He nursed the national banks and 
ceased to inundate the country with legal-tender currency. 
The premium on gold receded. Public credit was re-estab- 
lished. The Secretary liad justified the confidence of the 
public ; but only intending to hold the jiosition temporarily, in 
less than a year he tendered his resignation in order to accept 
his place in the Senate, to which Maine, with becoming 
State pride in one of her most distinguished sons, had again 
promptly leturned him. 

The administration of the Treasury Department was too 
brief to afford any opportunity for the display of new and 
original financial plans, and the Secretary, if he had any such 
plans, which may be questioned, did not aim at brilliant 
theories when practical wisdom, economy, and integrity would 
through daily use serve the country better. 

The acceptance by Senator Fessenden of the Treasury 
Department was based ui)on a princiijle deeply imbedded in 
his nature. He felt that he was called from a station where 
his usefulness had been unquestioned to a new and untried 
field to which he had never had any asjjirations, and where 
even great ability and the utmost devotion might not com- 
mand success; but his principle was that "even his name 



■WILLIAM riTT FESSENDEN. 33 

amoug- men .should be of little accouut when weighed In 
the balance against the welfare of the people," and his 
administration in a critical emergency proved wise ajid 
safe, fnlly deserving a: liberal recognition now as it is sure to 
receive hereafter. 

The most conspicnous instance of Mr. Fessenden's obstinate 
adherence to the principle already referred to was on the late 
impeachment trial, and was elaborately enunciated two years 
earlier in his fine eulogy upon the death of Senator Foot, 
whom he loved tenderly, and tenderly lamented, where, after 
referring to all that a faithful Senator will have to encounter, 
he said : 

"All this, if lie would retain his integrity, ho must learn to bear un- 
moved and walk steadily onward in the path of public duty, sustained 
only by the reflection that time may do him justice, or if not, that his 
individual hopes and aspirations .and even his name among men should 
be of little account to him when weighed in the balance against the 
welfare of the people, of whose destiny he is the constituted guardian 
and defender." 

Two years after these words were uttered he practically 
showed his willingness to brave popular o])inion, and, if need 
be, to sacrifice himself, by voting for the acquittal of the 
President. That he shocked the public judgment of his State, 
or of the great party to which he belonged, (and he could 
belong to no other,) is undeniable ; but, however mistaken his 
views were thought to have been by those of us who reached 
other and different conclusions upon the same evidence, I am 
not aware that the integrity of his motives was ever impugned 
by any of his peers. He probably would never have asked 
forgiveness for this act, but time gently wears away some of 
the asperities of political life, and his people, having little else 
to forgive, would in this case most likely have gi-anted him 
absolution. 

He was the natural and courageous enemy of all political 
quacks and quackery. With Addison he might have said : 

" BeUeve who will the solemn sham, not I." 



34 REMARKS OF MR. MORRILL ON 

No measure not resting on the solid foundations of reason 
and public policy obtained his support. He snuffed pretenders 
and pretenses afar off and drov^c them ignominiously from 
his presence. Even though a friend got inflated with a 
bubble, the bubble was none the less sure by him to be 
remorselessly pricked. He espoused no cause until his judg- 
ment was convinced, and this he guarded with scrupulous care 
against all false weights. Intensely New England in thought, 
as weU as in form and feature, yet his whole record might in 
vain be searched for a sectional vote or a sentiment which 
might not fairly belong to any liberal-minded statesman. 

It is well known that the late rebellion was the sequence of a 
conspiracy gotten up in this Capitol, based upon the idea that 
the North would not fight and that peaceable secession was 
practically safe and easy. But one of the conspirators, then 
serving in the Senate with Mr. Eesseuden, did not conceal his 
opinion from his midnight associates that the straight and 
slender Senator from Maine was as much to be feared as any 
other man in the Senate. IMr. Fessenden was slow to believe 
that the Government would be forced to resort to the rigors of 
actual war; he could not think the South would dare to bray 
the institution of slavery in such a mortar ; but, when the time 
came, his resolution and courage fuUy justified the apprehen- 
sion of the incipient rebel. Though the capital of our country 
trembled from the shock, he was neither confused nor terrified. 

No legislator labored more zealously or more cfliciently for 
the j)reservation of his country, and at the close of the war his 
"report from the committee of fifteen on reconstruction" will 
long rank as a masterly production and find its place among 
the ablest State papers of the nation. 

If he had his faults it will be fortunate for those of us who 
may be charged with less, and let us then bear willing testi- 
mony to those pre-eminent gifts and traits of character the 
memory of which must now swell the common tamo of our 
country and be handed down as a legacy to posterity. The 



■WILLIAM PITT FESSBNDEN. 



praise of to-day will not be inconsiderately bestowed, because 
it justly belongs to exalted merit and worth. 

We miss a tiiie friend, a manly foe, a wise and useful 
legislator. We miss an American Senator who was warm in 
liis affections for his country and always zealous of its honor. 



REMARKS BY MR. CATTELL, OF NEW JERSEY. 

3Ir. President: If I were to take counsel of my judgment 
rather than of my feelings, I am sure I should remain a silent 
listener throughout these mournful ceremonies, for I cannot 
hope to add anything to the eloquent and impressive words 
which have fallen from the lips of those who have preceded 
me, nor will any words of mine add to the justly high estimate 
which the people of this country have formed of the talents, 
patriotism, and eminent services of the distinguished states- 
man whose loss we mourn. 

But I should do violence to the promptings of my heart if I 
failed on this occasion to offer my tribute of respect and 
affection to the memory of my departed friend. 

It is no pai't of nij' purpose to attempt any delineation of 
the character of Mr. Fessenden, or to speak of the eminent 
services he has rendered to tlie country on this floor and else- 
where, iu the most critical period of our nation's history. His 
colleague and others have fitly spoken of his i)ublic career, 
and it may safely be left for the pen of the historian to com- 
plete the record. My purpose is a more .simple and grateful 
one. I bring from the garden of the heart a few fresh, modest 
flowers, dripping with the dew of affection, to cast upon the 
grave of the friend I loved. 

Mr. Fessenden was my friend. When three years ago I came 
to this chamber, fresli from the busy walks of a stirring com- 
mercial life which afforded little time for the careful study of 
public affairs, a stranger to most of the members of the body, 
uufamiliar with the forms of legislation, deeply impressed with 



36 



KEMAEKS OF MR. CATTELL ON 



tlio rosj)oiisibilities of my new i)OSition, ;iii(l diwtiustl'iil of my 
ability to do justice to my State, he took me by tlic liaiid, 
addressed to me generous words of encouragement, ga^•o me 
bis confidence, and honored nic with his friendship, and with 
all the kindness, delicacy, and aflectiou of an elder brother, he 
continued to the end to be jny constant counselor and steadfast 
friend. 

At the very outset of my senatorial career he was kind 
enough to express a wish to have me placed on the Finance 
Committee, of which he was then chairman; a position which 
as a new member I had no right to expect, but a compliment I 
fully appreciated. For more tlian two years it has been my 
privilege to occupy a seat by his side in this chamber, kindly 
invited thereto by himself. I had therefore the advantage of 
enjoying to a large extent his brilliant and instructive conver- 
sation on subjects of public interest, and also ample oppor- 
tunity to study the characteristics of his miud and heart in 
the unrestricted social intercourse which such proximity natur- 
ally begets between friends. 

Mr. President, William P. Fessenden was an honest man; 
and, sir, 

"An honest man 's the nohlest work of God." 

He was the truest man to his convictions I have ever known. 
He had that combination of qualities which alone can make a 
great statesman — a clear head and a pure heart coupled with a 
firm will and a determined spirit. Moreover, I can bear testi- 
mony that he was a man of the finest sensibilities, the most 
tender-hearted and affectionate of men. I speak of this be- 
cause I fear in some quarters he was not in this respect fully 
understood. In the heat and fervor of current off-hand debate, 
wherein I think he was without a rival in this chamber, bis 
keen, sharp, incisive style and earnest manner would some- 
times woiuid an opponent; but he bore malice toward none, 
and I think it may be truthfully said of him, as he said of the 
lamented Senator Foot, "Impidsive and ardent in tempera- 



■WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 37 

meut, he was generous and forgiving. If injury excited liiui 
to anger, it was a generous anger which could hardly outlive 
the occasion and perished of itself if left alone." 

But I forbear. I rose only to speak of him as my friend. I 
was on the far-off shores of the Pacific when the telegraph 
brought to that distant point the account of Mr. Fessenden's 
extreme illness. In common with other members of this body 
then in California, I watched with intense anxiety the daily 
bulletin from his home by the shores of the Atlantic ; and if 
ever there went up to Heaven from my heart of hearts an 
earnest ejaculation, it was that God would spare his life. 

But it was otherwise ordered. The bolt has fallen; and 
while we sorrow for the loss of the patriot, statesman, and 
friend, it becomes us to bow submissively to the will of Him 
"who doeth all things well." Mr, President, there are others 
here who have known Mr. Fessenden longer than I have, who 
have shared witli him for long years the duties and responsi- 
bilities of public life; others who respected him in his life, 
enjoyed his friendship, and now lament his death. But no one 
in this chamber I am sure will more deeply feel the void cre- 
ated by liis death, or miss his companionship more, than I. My 
heart sinks within me at the thought that I shall no more he.ar 
his kindly morning salutation, no more look into his classic 
face, no more feel the warm pressure of his hand. All this is 
gone, and gone forever; but I shall hold in perpetual and 
grateful remembrance the pleasant memories of our friendly 
relations on earth. It only remains for me to say, farewell, 
kind friend, farewell. 



REMARKS BY ME. PATTERSON, OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

Mr. President : We have not rested to-day from the ordinary 
routine of legislation to exhibit a simulated sorrow or to enact 
an empty pageant at the grave of oiu- fallen associate. The 
Senate is oppressed with an abiding sense of its bereavement, 



38 REMARKS OF MR. PATTERSON ON 

and with the painful thought that one of the wisest of its coun- 
cilors will never again return to participate in its dclil)- 
erations. 

We all respected, and those who knew him intimately loved, 
William Pitt Fessenden. He was sometimes tempted into 
sharp controversies in the arena of debate, for his (-onvictions 
were profound, his emotional nature quick, and a sarcasm 
sharper than a Damascus blade was ready at his command. 
It is natural and pardonable that a trained master in the art of 
advocacy and defense should enter the lists and fight valiantly 
when either an old friend or a cherished measure is attacked. 

" Wo have seen the intellectual race 
Of giauts stand like Titans face to face ; 
Athos and Ida with a dashing sea 
Of eloqncuco between, which flowed .ill free, 
As the deep billows of the ^gean roar 
Betwixt the Hellenic and the Phrygian shore." 

The wounds he inflicted were given without malice, though 
they were sometimes deep and painful; but his antagonists 
were noble, and their animosities are now all buried in 
his grave. He was not a politician, but an incorruptible 
statesman, and our bereavement is therefore a national 
loss. 

Baptized into the name of England's greatest minister, he 
seems to have been dedicated from the cradle to public affairs. 
He was born at Boscawen, New Hampshire, on the ICth of 
October, 1806, within a few miles of the birth-iilace of Mr. 
Webster, the life-long friend of his father. Once I heard Mr. 
Fessenden speak modestly but gratefully of the kindly and fos- 
tering interest which the great statesman bestowed upon him- 
self as a chUd and during the opening years of his manhood. 
In the same conversation he referred with regret to the vote 
which he had felt compelled to give in the presidential conven- 
tion of 1852. Mr. Webster, when told that the friend who 
had so early enjoyed his aflectionate regards had opened 
the balloting by casting the vote of Maine for General 



Scott rather thiiu himself, after a paiuful pause, replied, refer- 
ring to the sentiments of his father, "Well, William Pitt Fes- 
senden has come to liis inheritance earlier than I anticipated." 
This imj)lied an act of iugratitiule, and was carried by Mr. 
resseudeu in sorrow, not in anger, to the grave, as his vote 
had violated his personal feelings to express the will of his 
State. 

Mr. Fessenden had an exquisitely sensitive nature, which 
vibrated to the slightest touch; and his aflectiou, especially 
his love of kindred and friends, was as deep and tender as a 
woman's. The endearing terms of respect and love in which 
he was wont to speak of his father in the closing years of his 
life were touching and beautiful in the extreme ; and we who 
were present shall never forget the moistened eye, the quiver- 
ing lip, and the stifled utterance with which he spoke of his 
sous, living and dead, on the solitary occasion when he rose 
here in his own defense against what he deemed an unjust im- 
putatiou of an undue exertion of influence in their behalf. 

He had little taste, I apprehend, for general society. 
Formal dinner-parties and the empty show and platitudes of 
fashionable life he did not relish ; but an evening among his 
friends was a medicine to his iiublic cares and a pleasure to 
his heart which he gladly welcomed. He did not covet a wide 
circle of intimates, but followed the precept of Polonius: 

" The friends thou liast, and their adoptiou tried, 
GraiJiilo them to thy soul with hooks of steel." 

He was charitable and considerate toward his friends, and 
never humiliated or cast off even the humblest by patronizing 
or domineering. 

I doubt not his social habits were modified somewhat by the 
studious character of his early professional life and the precari- 
ous health of his later years. He had learned to husband the 
time and strength which too many give to pleasure for the dis- 
charge of high and grave public trusts. 

The remarkable intellectual gifts of this distinguished man 



40 REM A KKS OF MK. PATTERSON ON 

were au inheritance from botii liis parents, who were persons 
of unusual mental vigor; but tiiey had been strengthened by 
long and close application. 1 once expressed to him my sur- 
prise that lie so rarely snpi)orted his speeches by reference to 
legal authorities. His reply was that he had been a close stu- 
dent for twenty years, while in the practice of law, and if his 
matured opinions could not stand upon their own merits, they 
were not worth supporting. 

But Ms restless mental activity swept beyond the limits of 
professional study into the fields of history and general litera- 
ture. With a fear bordering upon a morbid dread of pedantry, 
he ordinarily concealed his literary attainments; but sometimes, 
in the seclusion of his chamber, he would rehearse a poem with 
such pathos and tender appreciation of its beauties as to sur- 
l)rise and entrance the ])rivileg('d listener. Once upon such an 
occasion, when asked why he did not oftener draw illustration 
and ornament from the classic authors, he expressed a feeling 
approaching contempt for the practice of interlarding forensic 
efforts at measured intervals with burrowed scraps of poetry. 
The solid masonry of argument is weakened by an attempt to 
build into it the cunning workmanship of rhetoric, and orig- 
inal poverty of style can only be enriched by a mental diges- 
tion and appropriation of the best intellectual products of the 
past. An ignoramus may ape the learning of an Erasmus, and 
a clown wear the glittering i-obe of a Sophocles or Milton, but 
the quick sense of unlettered men even will penetrate their dis- 
guises. Mr. Fessenden's honest hate of all such false pretenses 
was so intense as to deprive him in a measure, 1 apprehend, of 
his imquestioned rights as a scholar. 

I leave the task of analyzing his mental constitution and 
political career to others who knew him longer and will speak 
more at length, but I cannot refrain from alluding to what 
seemed to me a marked peculiarity of his mind. While there 
was nothing petty or technical in its pi'ocesses, while the grasp 
of his intellect was large and comprehensive, his most striking 



WILLIAM PITT FES SENDEN. 4^ 



characteristic was a luarvclous power of analysis. He was an 
accomplished logician, and would have excelled as a metaphy- 
sician. The uature and minutest relations of every question 
seemed to come to him by an instantaneous intuition. How 
often we have seen him blast some fine theory by a single word 
as potent as the spear of Ithuriel ! 

He had a habit of resohdng every proposition into its ele- 
ments, and of testing them by the application of first prin- 
ciples ; and such was his command of his faculties that he 
could enter upon and pursue these mental operations in the 
whirling eddy of affairs and in the midst of the most boister- 
ous debate. He had the rare faculty of withdrawing from the 
outward and objective into the calm retreats of the reason, 
where he would fabricate, in undisturbed seclusion, the close 
argument which be would launch forth in an unlooked- 
for discussion, all fresh and glowing from the burning forge 
within. 

A stranger might not detect his purpose, but one who knew 
him well could prognosticate from his expressive face a coming 
speech with the certainty of assurance. When up, he asked no 
quarter and resorted to no arts to establish his cause ; never 
substituted bis i)ersonal authority for logic, but appealed 
always to the reason and conscience of the Senate. 

Mr. Fessenden's written efforts exhibited the same grasp of 
thought and terseness of expression which we find in his spoken 
addiesses, though it is evident he had not the same facility in 
composition which he possessed in oral speech. The memor- 
able report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, written by 
him, will hereafter be second to no public document relating to 
that most important period in the history of our national legis- 
lation. It presents the condition of affairs and the questions at 
issue in a form so clear and compact, and enforces the duty of 
Congress with arguments so apt and cogent, that it has since 
had the force of a political creed to the dominant party on the 
subject of leconstruction. In this, as in every public act with 



■12 



KKlIAltKS OF Mil. PATTEKSON ON 



which his name is connected, he favors the largest liberty which 
the conditions of society will allow. His education, his reason, 
his sympathies, and all the instincts of his noble nature re- 
belled against every form of human oppression. 

He was sometimes conservative, where his political associates 
demanded reformation, but it was only when convinced that 
legislation woidd react against the purity and permanence of 
the Hepublie or to the detriment of his countrymen. His large 
experience and great familiarity with the history of gov- 
ernments sometimes induced hesitation where others less in- 
structed by the experience of the past moved forward upon an 
unobstructed path amazed and indignant at the scruples of the 
statesman. Possibly the comprehensiveness of his views and 
a habit of thoroughly and carefully considering subjects in all 
their aspects dulled the " native hue of his resolution," and 
measurably unfitted him to be a leader in revolutionary times. 
He was never swept oft" his feet by the force of his indignation 
against some solitary outrage; never concentrated his gaze 
so intensely upon some single good as to lose sight of the gen- 
eral welfare of the country in its I'clated interests as an en- 
tirety. 

He seemed equally informed and equally interested in the 
foreign and domestic affairs of the Government, in its social 
and political polities, and in its questions of labor and of 
capital. 

In all the long and eventful period over which his public 
life extended, though connected intimately with every great 
measure which passed this body, his integrity and patriotism 
were never questioned. Bitter and widespread as was the 
disappointment which attended his vote upon the august trial 
of the President of the United States, no Senator doubted 
that William Pitt Fessenden acted from a sense of duty in 
view of the facts and the law as they presented themselves 
to his apprehension. By what mental process he could reach 
the conclusion he did was then, is now, a mystery to many 



WILLIAM PITT PESSENDEK. 43 

who bad battled by bis sitle in the long agony of tbe great 
rebellion and who now cherish his memoiy with fraternal 
love. But when we consider with what infinite pain his 
sensitive and loving nature must have rolled the bitter- 
ness of that defeat upon his life-long supporters and 
party friends, when we recall the calm and quiet natural- 
ness and self-poise with which he moved in and out before 
us while intense excitement rolled around this Hall and 
deep anathemas hung in the air above him, we must acknowl- 
edge that there was no self-seeking, no hollow ambition in 
that act, but only Invincible courage and the manliest 
political virtue. I do not .approve his vote, but am com- 
Ijelled to commend the spirit of self-renunciation with 
which it was given. That was of the verj- essence of the 
loftiest public morality. 

One who knew him intimately as an associate upon this 
floor, and himself an invalid in a foreign land, writes these 
expressive words : 

" He was the highest-toned man I ever knew ; the purest man I ever knew 
in public life, and the ablest public man of my day." 

It does not fall, sir, within tlie scope of my purpose to com- 
pare Mr. Fessenden with other Senators who have passed to 
their great inheritance of fame from this arena of legislation. 
Some have commanded more wealth and splendor of rhetoric ; 
others have held the Senate in the spell of a more ])owerful 
and fascinating eloquence ; but none have given to the ijublic 
service more intelligence, a piu-er patriotism, or a loftier public 
virtue. 

Of the last hours of this distinguished man I know but 
little. Beared and educated in a neighboring State, New 
Hamjjshire claims only the honor of his birth. His public 
labors and great fame are of the treasures of the whole 
country; but with pride his native State enrolls his high 
among the imperishable names which she has given to the 
Eepublic and to mankind. 



44 EEMAUKS OF SIR. DAVIS ON 



REMARKS BY MR. DAVIS, OF KENTUCKY. 

Mr. President: I first saw William Pitt Fcsscnden in the 
summer of 1837. Mi". Webster had been invited hy his 
admirers of Kentucky to visit that State, and one of the 
friends who accompanied him was the young Fessenden. The 
great Senator presented him to our people as his 'protcgd, and 
as a young man of ability who had already given high promise 
of future distinction and usefulness to his country; and Mr. 
Clay and his friends received him with all the consideration 
and courtesy due to his rising merits and the generous indorse- 
ment of his illustrious friend and patron. The warm greeting 
of the peojile of Kentucky and the witching hosi>italities of 
Ashland made a lasting impression upon Mr. Fessenden. 

Blr. Webster had been previously made bj- him his political 
leader and iustructor, and from that A'isit he fully associated 
Mr. Clay ; and he proved himself one of the ablest and most 
faithful of their disciples, firmly held the respect and confi- 
dence of both to the end of their lives, and in his career fully 
responded to the high estimate and hopes which they so early 
formed of him. 

I first met Mr. Fessenden in the House of Eepresentatives 
at the December session of 1841, and there served with him 
through the Twenty-seventh Congress. A community of polit- 
ical principles and jiolicy, and of admiration and friendship for 
Mr. Clay, brought Mr. Fessenden and myself into close and 
frequent contact. We often interchanged views upon political 
and miscellaneous subjects, and we formed and cherished 
mutually sentiments of respect and friendship. He was not 
only a young man of eminent ability and attainments, but he 
was warm-hearted, frank, sincere, true, honorable, and emi- 
nently conscientious. His health was then good, and he was 
always bright and genial ; sometimes he showed the lambent 
play of passion and fire. He was an especial favorite of Mr. 
Clay, and the Kentucky delegation of both Houses ; they were 



WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 45 

proud thiit the distant Northeast had seut to Congress a friend 
and follower of their great leader, himself of such rare merit. 
That leader and all the members of those delegations but 
three — Underwood and Andrews and Davis — were borne to 
their graves before Fessenden. He held firmly the true and 
high regard of those who went before and of those who 
follow him. 

Mr. Fessenden brought to the study of our Constitution and 
system of government a vigorous and discriminating intellect, 
an exalted conscientiousness and moral sense, a pure and 
fervid patriotism, and great physical and moral courage ; 
and he learned and comprehended and maintained their truth, 
principles, and philosophy. He knew and realized that ours 
was a government of written lang-uage, of provisions, of prac- 
tical principles, and not of abstract ideas ; that it was formed 
by the States, and the people of the States delegating by a 
written Constitution to a magistracy to be organized and 
chosen for the United States some enumerated powers of gov- 
ernment, and retaining to themselves all others; and that the 
l)owers thus organized were divided into legislative, executive, 
and judicial, and each class of them vested in a separate and 
co-ordinate body of magistracy, intended and framed to be 
checks upon each other, and each to guard and defend the 
integrity of the Constitution and the liberties of the people 
against the other departments and all assailants. He knew 
that the powers of the Government could not be augmented 
or altered or amended by arms or war or conquest, but only by 
the antliority and in the mode prescribed by the Constitution 
itself; that all the powers of Government which the people 
of the United States intended to imbody and to be exercised 
by Government they had divided by the Constitution between 
the Government of the United States and the several States; and 
that political sovereignty did not appertain to either of those 
governments, or to all of them, but to the peoi>le only. That 
the powers of the Government conferred upon it by the Con- 



iC, ItKMAllKS OF MK. IIAVTS nx 

Htitiitioii, iind thoacts of Oougress in conformity to it, were the 
Huprcmo law of the land ; but all other powers, authority, and 
laws were of the reserved sovereignty of the people of the 
several States. Mr. Fesscnden's reading of the Constitution 
and political philosophy clearly taught him that the Goveni- 
nient of the United States is built upon the States and their 
governments partly, and their continuance is necessary to its 
existence and operation ; that it might cease to act, be dis- 
solved, or abolished, and they remain completely organized 
and administered. 

After the insurrection luul broken out in such grand and 
threaf(>ning ])roi)(>rti()us, the absorbing object of Mr. Fessenden 
became to be its sui)pression and the holding of all the States 
together, /as aut nc/as, under the same Government. He was 
sincerely and strongly attached to the Union of the States for 
the great and common good which it brought to them all, but 
its paramount importance to his own State and section made 
that st'iitimcnt with him an intense passion. Their remote 
position and natural poverty and weakness were such that a 
disruption of the Union would have been to them one of the 
greatest calamities; and he firmly resolved that if he could 
prevent it, thej' should not be left out in the cold Northeast. 
lie therefore gave his earnest support to all the measures of 
Mr. Lincoln's administration for the suppression of the rebellion. 
His excitedapprehensions were continually uttering to his soul 
and sense the strong language of the day : " the life of the 
nation has been assailed with tremendous forces, and by all 
law it has every right of defense and self-preservation." Such 
was the view which 'Mr. Fessenden took of this mighty na- 
tional throe. 

15ut with him the war upon the part of the Government and 
I he adhering people of the United States Avas not and could 
not become a war of subjugation, of conquest, or of the demo- 
lition t)f the States whose people had risen in rebellion, lait was 
Mar only to supi>ress insurgents and rebels and to uphold and 



WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEX. 47 



enforce the authoiitv aud laws of the Uuited States; and 

when those ends were secured, guilty leaders and individuals 

might be visited with personal punishment for violations of 

law ; but the war could no longer be legitimately continued 

for any purpose whatever. Mr. Fessenden voted in the most 

solemn form for these propositions : 

"That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country 
by the disnnionists of the southern States now in revolt against the Con- 
stitution and Government, and in arms around the Capital; that in 
this national emergency Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion 
or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country ; that the 
war is not waged upon our part in any sjiirit of oppression, nor for any 
purpose of couquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or inter- 
fering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to 
defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve 
the UnioQ with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States 
unimpaired ; that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought 
to cease." 

These noble words breathe the very spirit of our constitu- 
tional form of government, and the deep, truthful, and earnest 
spirit of Mr. Fessenden, at least, meant all they express. He 
knew that the Government of the United States had no power 
under any state of things to abolish a State or its government, 
or to take any action upon the assumption or hypothesis of such 
destruction. He understood clearly that it was the duty of the 
United States Government to uphold, defend, and preserve the 
States and their governments as parts of its own essential 
machinery ; and if his conservative, constitutional, and enlight- 
ened statesmanship could have prevailed, the storm of civil war 
would have swept over the country, and as it passed away the 
governments of the Uuited States and every State would spon- 
taneously, by the vis vitm of our system, have resumed their 
proper positions and relations; and peace, order, prosperity, and 
liberty would soon have blessed again the whole land. 

The statesmanship of Mr. Fessenden was more moderate and 
virtuous, wiser and more patriotic, than that propounded by 
the Mountain faction of Congress and the country, and which 
his party slowly accepted. 



48 



REMARKS OF MR. DAVIS OK 



As tlie contest raged with varying fortune the ]iassions of 
the people became stirred to their profoundest depths. Men of 
weak understandings, of violent and wild passions, of attractive 
but niisfhievous theories, of selfish and sinister purposes, threw 
themselves everywhere in the lead and called for the extreiuest 
measures. The maddened people listened to them, accepted 
their leadership, were fascinated by their diabolical counsels; 
and after that people had put down the rebellion those archi- 
tects of revolution and ruin, still holding the country under their 
sjiell, inaugurated their wild work. 

The time had come for passion to give place to reason ; when 
the voice of reason must be potential to save our constitutional 
form of government. Mr. Fessenden, and other men entertain- 
ing similar views, vainly sought that hearing, even in the Senate 
Chamber. The spirits of revolution and ruin here, at first few, 
continued to grow in numbers and audacity as not only to silence 
Mr. Fessenden and his small band of associated conservative 
Eepublicans, but ultimately to hitch them on to their triumphal 
car and to drag them along in their destructive career, even to 
support the overthrow of our Constitution and form of govern- 
ment by what is called the reconstruction acts of Congress. 
Mr. Fessenden clearly saw the abyss before him; he was to 
sei>arate from and turn ui)on his party or take the fatal leap; 
unfortunately for his own pure and enduring fame, and for his 
country, he accepted the latter. 

But Mr. Fessenden's conservatism and devotion to the Con- 
stitution led him into many struggles with the excesses of his 
party and its moi'e reckless leaders. No partj^ man ever dis- 
sented oftener or more essentially from his party or rebuked 
with more ireful but manly scorn its arrogant leaders who 
abused its trust in the promotion of their own selfish purposes 
to the detriment of the country. His separation from them on 
the impeachment of the late President is a grand testimony in 
support of his correct comprehension of the Constitution, of 
his true statesmanship, of his stern sense of duty, his great 



■WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 49 

moral fli-mness, and bis exalted patriotism. Tbe muse of his- 
tory will write this chapter of his life in characters that will 
uever fade; it will be a more imperishable monument than 
marble or brass, and upon it will be inscribed: "The ablest and 
purest statesman of New England in his day and generation." 



REMARKS OF MK. VICKERS, OF MARYLAND. 

3Ir. President : I have listened with melancholy interest to 
the recital of the prominent traits in the character and history 
of a deceased Senator and to the eloquent eulogies that have 
been j)ronounced upon him. Those who knew him best, had 
served longer with him in public life, and enjoyed more inti- 
mately his social communion, can more fully appreciate his pub- 
lic character and intellectual and moral worth. My acquaint- 
ance with him was recent and limited, and my opportunities 
less, of forming a correct estimate of his ability and merits; 
but his long and eminent career in the i^ublic service and his 
conceded talents made a favorable impression upon my mind 
long before my induction into public life. After my admis- 
sion into this bodj^ I marked his course and listened to him in 
debate with more than ordinary attention. To me he api)eared 
in some sense the Nestor of the Senate. His grave and 
thouglitful brow and dignified mien produced sentiments of 
veneration, while his words made a deep impression. More 
than once I privately appealed to him to speak more audibly, 
for on my side of the Chanil)er we desired to distinctly hear 
and understand him. He told me that his habit was acquired 
in the old Senate Chamber, where any one could be heard 
witliout difficult}'. 

I consider it no disparagement to Senators to say that he 
was one of tbe most accomplished and logical debaters among 
us. He was also, what is more rare, a good listener, and did 



50 KEIIAUKS OF MR. A^ICKKP.S ON 

not often occupy tbe floor. It was only upon occasions of im- 
portance that be rose to a discussion, and wlien he flnislied tbe 
debate frequently was virtually ended; the strong points were 
seized and analyzed, and when they had i)assed through the 
crucible of his itnderstanding the piu'c metal was easily dis- 
cerned. Although I differed with bini on some subjects of 
national moment, yet when I considered his education, section, 
habits, and associations, I could not doubt bis sincerity or his 
patriotism. The materials which a life iu the nation's service 
had enabled him to collect he bad an aptness and facility in 
using which gave him great advantage iu discussion. His 
efforts had the appearance of fluency and ease, while bis com- 
mand of appropriate expressions imi)ressed tbe minds of his 
hearers with bis great ability. His style was not ornate or dif- 
fuse, but be possessed the power of concentration and force, as 
well as of classical taste, that outweighed the metaphorical 
and beautiful. If true eloquence consists in great will, great 
coiirage, great intellect, and the power that controls tbe judg- 
ment, then he was an orator of the first class; or if to be 
worth much, speech juust begin like a river and flow and 
widen and deepen until the end. he possessed that attribute 
also. On some occasions, being warmed by the subject and 
circumstances, he spoke with an animation and cogency which 
exhibited his higher powers of argumentative eloquence, 
though ordinarily Homer's description of the oratory of 
Ulysses might be partially applied: 

"But when bo speaks wliat elocution flows, 
Soft as the fleeces of descending snows." 

It may be said of him what was once remarked of a dis- 
tmguisbed French orator, that be said just what he meant to 
say, and like an expert navigator be steered his words and 
his ideas through tbe shoals which beset him on every side, 
not only without going to wreck, but without ever running 
aground. In a word, be was an exiJerieuced and wise states- 



WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 5| 

luau, au eloquent and nietliodioal debater, with powers of rea- 
soning rarely equaled or excelled. 

On a momentous and memorable occasion he uttered senti- 
ments which, like jewels of brilliancy and value, will be treas- 
ured by the virtuous and the patriotic, and were worthy of 
tlie Fathers of the llepublic. He said: 

"A desire to be consistent would not excuse a violation of my oath 
to do impartial justice. In the words of Lord Eldeu, I take no notice of 
what is x)assiug out of doors, because I am supjiosed constitutioually 
not to be acijuaiuted with it ; and I should consider myself undeserving 
the confidence of that just and intelligent people who imposed upon 
mc this great responsibility, and unworthy of a place among honorable 
meu, if for any fear of public reprobation and for the sake of securing 
popular favor I should disregard the convictions of my judgment and my 
conscience." 

These declarations were worthy of a Eoman senator in the 
palmiest days of the Eepublic; they are eminently worthy 
of an American Senator and jurist, and indicate the sterliug 
worth and purity of the man. No prouder monument need be 
erected to his fame. His firmness and decision under the try- 
ing circumstances reminded me of the reply of the noble Duke 
of Somerset to James II of England, who had told him that 
he was above the law and would make him fear him: "Your 
Majesty may be above the law, but I am not, and while I obey 
the law I fear nothing." 

But he has left us. When I last saw him he was in apparent 
health, and filled his place and performed his duties with his 
accustomed fidelity. A few short months brought us the tele- 
graphic information that he was sick, ill, dead! Upon my 
mind it fell like an electric shock, and I could scarcely realize 
its sadness and solemnity. The Bible informs us that some 
"shall die like men and fall like one of the princes." He has 
verified it, for a great man has fallen, and William Pitt Fes- 
senden sleeps with his fathers ; but his usefulness and reputa- 
tion survive, and the historian will pay an exalted tribute to 
his memory. Let us be admouished, Senators, that we, too, are 
frail and mortal and may soon be called to pay the same debt 



REMARKS OF nm. HAMLIN ON 



of our common nature; that we owe high duties to the state, 
those of cliaiity and forbearance to each other, and a responsi- 
bility to the great Kuler of the Universe for the faithful dis- 
charge of every public and ))rivate duty. 



REMARKS BY MR. HAMLIN, OF MAINE. 

3Ir. President: The truthful find appropriate words which 
have been spoken by Senators in honor and memory of my 
deceased colleague have left but little to be added. So fall 
and generous have been their expressions of his distinguished 
ability, his services in the councils of the nation, and his high 
moral worth, that necessity would seem to require no word 
from me ; but duty and inclination impel me to pay a brief but 
sincere tribute to his memory and his worth. That he has 
been thus appreciated by the Senators with whom he served is 
gratifying to the people of the State he represented, which 
State he so highly honored, as it had honored him, and doubly 
gratifying will it be to his family, relatives, and irieuds who 
shared most intimately his confidence and friendship, and who 
most deeply feel and mourn his loss. 

My estimate of my late colleague has been formed by long 
years of association with him. I was a student at law in his 
ofBce, and practiced with him for a time in the same courts. 
We served together as members of the Legislature of our 
State, and for many years were together Senators here. The 
purity of his life challenges and commands our admiration and 
furnishes an example for all to imitate. 

He was alike eminent iii his profession of law and in the 
Senate, standing in the foremost ranks of each. I do pot deem 
it necessary or even appropriate to attempt a reference in detail, 
after so much has been said by Senators as to his varied ability 
or specific public acts; it could be but a repetition. The im- 
press of his mind is indelibly stamped upon the laws and policy 



WILLIAM riTTFESSENDEN. 53 

of the country. As a parliamentary debater he was without a 
superior, aud iu one regard without a peer. 

He lived and acted at the most important period of our 
country's history, when the events of a century were com- 
pressed into a single year and requiring minds of no ordinary 
character to deal with and give them direction. It was a time, 
too, that taught us all more clearly that the duties and 
victories of civil life are as comprehensive and important as 
those of arms, and that the distinguished statesman who aids 
in wisely directing the councils of the nation should at least 
be held in as cherished remembrance as he who successfully 
commands our armies in the field in time of Avar. Their 
several duties and responsibilities are unlike, but equally im- 
jjortant. Indeed, whatever may be the public estimate, in my 
judgment the eminent statesmen, prominent in legislation, who 
give form and shape to the laws that govern, and who impress 
their genius and ability upon them, occupy apositi(m as imiwrt- 
ant — may I not say of higher importance — than lie wlu) exe- 
cutes or gives them construction. Such I believe is the 
position which a dispassionate public judgment, such the posi- 
tion that the historian will assign my late distinguished 
colleague, who in the inscrutable providence of God has been 
summoned from this earth, and whose manly form now reposes 
with the drapery of the grave around it. 

Mr. President, there are events connected with the Senate 
which the solemnities of the occasion seem to impress upon me 
with peculiar force, aud to which I may appropriately refer. I 
run my eye over the Senate Chamber to-day, and of all the men 
which constituted the body upon my entrance into it as a mem- 
ber but a single one — but a single one now remains with me. 
That one is my honored friend, the Senator from Pennsylvania 
who sits nearest to me, [Mr. Cameron ;] and it is no slight com- 
pensation for the annoyance incident to public life to know that 
intimate and most friendly relations which were then formed in 
all changes and antagonisms of public life have never for one 



5J. ADOPTION OF THE KKSOLUTIOXS. 

moment been disturbed. Could we have been transferred from 
that time to the present, from the Senate as it then was to the 
Senate as it now is, liow startling would be the change! We 
would lind ourselves in association with those who would be 
strangers to us. It teaches a moral that all may heed. 

During the period of time referred to, the Senate hascertjunly 
been graced by many of the most eminent and distinguished 
American Senators. Clay with his clarion voice and fervid 
eloquence; Calhoun with hi.s captivating manner and subtle 
metaphysics; Webster with his words of masterly power; 
Benton with his comprehensive knowledge of the legislation of 
the country, and an indomitable will ; Douglas with an earnest- 
ness and courage to meet and if i>ossible to overcome all obsta- 
cles in his way; and Collamer with his plausibility to persuade 
and liis learning and bis logic to convince; and Cass and Clay- 
ton, are certainly some of the Senators whose names stand 
highest upon the roll of senatorial fame. Their names, and 
others that might be designated, will be remembered while the 
Kepublic or its history shall exist ; and to this list is now to bo 
added the name of Fessenden, my late colleague. There it will 
reuuiiu imperishable as one of the great American Senators. 

ADOPTION OF THE EESOLUTIONS. 

The resolutions which had been submitted by Mr. Morrill, 
of Maine, Mere unanimoui5ly agreed to. 

On motion of Mr. Hamlin, of Maine, as a further mark of 
respect to the memory of the deceased, the Senate adjourned. 



PROCEEDINOS 

I N T H E 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



Mr. Geoege C. Gokham, the Secretary of tlie Senate, 
appeared at the bar and said : I am directed to comuuiuicate 
to the House of Eepresentatives information of the death of 
Hon. William Pitt Fessenden, late a Senator in Congress from 
the State of Maine, -n^ith the proceeding's of the Senate thereon. 

The Speakek. The iiroceedings of the Senate will be read. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

In Senate of the United States, 

December, 14, 1869. 
Eesohed, That, tlie Senate receive with deep regret the aimoimcemeat of 
the death of Wiixiam Pitt Fessenden, late a lueniber of this hody. 

Resolved, Tliat the members of the Senate will manifest their respect for 
the memory of the deceased by wearing the usual badge of mourning. 

Ilcsolved, That these i)roceediugs he communicated to the House of Rep- 
resentatives. 



REMARKS BY SIR. LYNCH, OF MAINE. 

Mr 82)ealccr : The message just received from the Senate 
announces that another of the distinguished statesmen of the 
country has passed away; and although the sad event occurred 
many months since, and has been heralded to the country by 
the pulpit and the press, it is eminently proper that in these 
halls, wliere he has exerted such a controlling influence, and at 
this time when on assembling together we miss his presence 
from our councils and begin to realize the nation's loss, we 
should pause from our labors, and, consecrating a day to his 
memory, xiay a tribute to his virtues. 



5G nEMARKS OF MR. LTNCH ON 

For myself, sir, I Lave uever so fully recognized the loss sus- 
tained by our eouiitiy, my State and my own immediate con- 
stituents, as since 1 returned to my labors here; lor although he 
was my neighbor and my friend, yet it was during the sessions 
of Congress that I was most closely and intimately connected 
with him. Indeed, since his election to the Senate, it was in 
discharge of his public duties hero that most of his active life 
was spent. 

At home he lived quite retired, passing most of his time with 
his family and in his garden and library, mingling but little 
with society and avoiding all excitement. His close application 
to his duties here during the sessions of Congress, which were 
uever interrupted except by sickness while he was a member of 
the Senate, made such draughts on his naturally feeble constitu- 
tion as to render it necessary for him to recuperate mentally 
and physically during the recess. 

A slight dejiarture from his usual course in this regard 
probably induced the attack which terminated his life. His 
sickness lasted but a few days, during which time the hojies 
and fears of his friends alternated, until the morning of Sep- 
tember 7, when he began gradually to sink away. 

"His snfiFerings eiidcil with the day, 
Yet lived he at its close, 
Aud brcatlied the long, long night away 
In statue-like repose ! 

" But when the sun in all his state 
Illumed the eflstern skies. 
He p.assed throngh glory's morning gate 
And walked in Paradise." 

He died in Portland at his liomc, which he loved so well, 
and surrounded by his family and friends, who were so dear to 
him, at twenty minutes past six o'clock on the morning of 
September 8. 

Mr. Fessenden, though born in the State of New Hamp- 
shire, (October 10, 1800,) was from his earliest childhood a 
resident of Maine. In that State he received his early train- 



WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. r7 



ing and his collegiate education, and it was iu the public 
service of that State that he acquired reputation as an able 
statesman. 

Admitted to the bar before he had attained his majority, he 
rose rapidly iu his profession, and at the time of his with- 
drawal from it into political life had no superior at the bar 
in Maine, and very few in the country. Candid, straightfor- 
ward, and direct, clear in his statements and logical in his 
arguments, he had great influence with court and jury ; and it 
was these qualities which, brought into exercise in the forum 
of the Senate, gave him such commanding influence iu that 
body. 

He loved his profession, and left it reluctautly for the 
more exciting and arduous duties of political life. Iden- 
tified with the Whig party, which, being in a minority 
in the State and nation, felt the necessity for putting 
forth its ablest champions, he found it difQcult to resist 
the demands made upon him by his political friends; 
and in 1831 he was elected one of the representatives 
from the city of Portland to the Legislature of Maine; 
aud although the youngest member, he soon rose to dis- 
tinction in that body and in the State. 

It was during this period that the United States Bank ques- 
tion was agitating Congress and the country, and resolutions 
were introduced into the Legislature instructing the Senators 
in Congress from Maine to vote against re-chartering that 
institution. Mr. Pessenden made a speech against the resolu- 
tions, which is remarkable not only for that peculiar power 
which distinguished his subsequent efforts, but more remark- 
able still as embodying his views of the duties aud responsibil- 
ities of a Senator of the United States, aud as laying down 
those opinions and principles which governed his own action in 
that high position. Some passages of this speech so strikingly 
illustrate his character, and shed so much light upon his 
course as a public man, that I cannot forbear quoting them 



58 REMAPvKS OF MR. LYNCH ON 



here. Speaking of the piopositiou to instruct Senators in 
Congress by State Legislatures, he said : 

" They have much botter opportunities to give the question full, fair, and 
thorough examination than wo can possibly possess. They, too, aro acting 
under the sanction of an oath, and they have, therefore, stronger induce- 
ments to give this matter, as thoy aro to pass upon it, such an investigation 
as it deserves. 

" Sir, I have no doubt that our Senators in Congress entertain these views. 
I should hesitate to believe that, in the discharge of their high and import- 
ant trust, they would, on questions of groat importance to our whole 
country, yield up their honest convictions and violate their oaths, simply to 
comply with the directions of any set of men whatever. I am free to con- 
fess, sir, that I would not thus act. On questions of mere local interests, 
interests connected with themselves alone, my constituents have a right to 
instruct mc, and I am bound to obey their instructions. 

" But, sir, on questions of general interest I have a higher obligation ; I 
am bound to examine and judge for myself, to form my own opinions, and to 
act upon them, and them only, on a question of this kind. Sir, did I know 
that the opinions of every one of my constituents differed from my own, if 
I acted at all, I would act according to my own honest convictions of right, 
were it directly in their teeth. Those whom I represent, sir, would despise 
mc if I acted otherwise. No, sir ; I might in such a case resign my ofiQce, 
but I would never violate the dictates of my own conscience. I am willing 
to be the servant of the peoiilc, but I never will bo their slave." 

How clearly and distinctly these words foreshadow the last 
prominent act of his public life. 

If his constituents were disappointed in his vote on the 
impeachment trial, they were at least fairly warned of the 
principles which would govern the man whom they chose to 
represent them. Differing with him in his vote on this ques- 
tion, believing then as I still believe he reached wrong conclu- 
sions, I cannot too strongly express my admiration of the high 
motives by which he was governed. And, sir, whatever differ- 
ence of opinion may exist in regard to the duty of Eepresenta- 
tives of States or districts to obey the expressed will of their 
constituents, all who appreciate true manhood must admire 
the character of him who in youth avowed these manly princi- 
ples, and consistently and courageously lived up to them 
against whatever temptation to the day of his death. 

The same high tone is characteristic of the man who in early 
life spoke these brave words ; and this character of perfect integ- 



■WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 59 

rityaud conscientiousuess impressed itself upon .ill with wboiii 
Mr. Fessenden came in contact. His speeches were never sensa- 
tional; clothed in i)lain, simijle language, they were severe in 
their logic, apt and pointed in their api>lication, and wonderfully 
effective in their influence. He seemed to follow the maxim of 
Solomon, that " it is an honor for a man to cease from strife, 
but every fool will be meddling ;" for he never dissipated his 
power in angry wrangling, or in stump speeches on current 
topics, but reserved his strength for emergencies when it was 
required; and however sudden and important the occasion, be 
was always found ready and fully armed. Making no preten- 
sions to oratorial i^owers, and seldom speaking to popular 
assemblies, yet few coidd command closer attention, or at times 
rouse an audience to a higher pitch of enthusiasm. 

He never spoke unless he had something to say, and never 
electioneered for the votes of his constituents by talking bun- 
combe from the floor in Congress, or writing it for newspajier 
publication. The small arts of the demagogue he disdained to 
use. He never flattered the people to obtain their votes. 

" He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, 
Or Jove, for bis power to tliunder." 

He had great influence in the body of which he was a mem- 
ber; which is proof that he was really a great man, for none 
other could acquire and retain the influence which he exerted 
over such a body of men as compose the Senate of the United 
States. 

This influence was largely due to the confidence which his 
high character inspired in those with whom he was associated. 
Every one felt that whether Mr. Fessenden was right or not, he 
believed himself to be so, and could give a reason for the faith 
that was in him in a plain, simi)le, quiet way, that commanded 
respect, if it did not produce conviction. He did not seek to 
persuade and argue people into his way of thinking. He only 
stated his convictions and the reasons for them, leaving those 
he addressed to decide for themselves on the issues presented. 



CO EEMAEKS OF MTv. LYNCH ON 

He had great order, not only in all business matters, but in 
bis mental processes. Whether in his library at home, or in 
his committee-room or jirivate apartments here, this same order 
was observed. There were no piles of books and manuscripts, 
no confusion of papers, but .all the surroundings were clear, 
clean, and orderly as the mind that presided over them. He 
kept himself unencumbered of all waste material, weeding out 
and rejecting everything superfluous, and retaining only the 
useful. Before making a speech he thought out and thoroughly 
analyzed his subject until his mind had reached a distinct con- 
clusion by logical and correct methods, and then stated in the 
simplest language what that conclusion was, and how he had 
himself arrived at it. His construction of a speech was like 
the building of Solomon's temple; you heard neither the sound 
of the hammer nor saw the dihris of the workmen, but every 
stone was taken from the quarry ready fitted to its place, and 
the building rose silently and rapidly from foundation to cap- 
stone. He was a man of exceedingly sound judgment, exam- 
ined everything brought to his attention critically before he 
decided upon it, and never signed any paper without carefully 
reading its contents, and when he did not fully agree to its 
statements, qualifying his approval. 

Mr. Fessenden first took his seat in the Senate of the United 
States in 1854, when the agitation of the slavery question had 
nearly reached its culmination. He immediately took a promi- 
nent part in the senatorial discussion on this subject, resisting 
manfully the aggressions of the slave power, and repelled with 
spirit the insolence of its advocates, teaching them that they 
were engaged in a conflict in which there were " blows to take 
as well as blows to give." It was in these discussions that Mr. 
Fessenden's talents as a ready and forcible debater were most 
conspicuously disi^layed ; and with all his reputation for con- 
servatism, an examination of his record will show that in 
the great contest in which slavery was destroyed, while 
freedom had fiercer and more violent champions, it had 



"WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. g]^ 

uone steadier, truer, or more reliable than William Pitt 
Fessenden. 

After a thorough examination of his congressional record, I 
cannot find where, from the beginning to the end of this con- 
flict, from the abrogation of the Missouri compromise to the 
last act of reconstruction, he ever yielded one essential point in 
favor of slavery. He was not a reformer, not a man to attack 
existing evils in the state ; but rather inclined to suffer from 
them while endurable than to disturb the existing forms by 
which they were protected. But he resisted all new conces- 
sions to slavery, and when he saw that the safety of the nation 
demanded its destruction he aimed to do the work thoroughly 
and effectively. 

In the debate on the admission of the Senators from Arkansas 
in June, 1804, he stated the foundation principles which guided 
the policy adopted for reconstructing the rebel States. This 
not only illustrates his habits of reflection on questions of pub- 
lic importance long before they arise, but a comparison of this 
speech with the report of the Committee on Eeconstruction 
will show a remarkable similarity of thought and i>urpose, and 
that report has been essentially the basis of this great work — 
the most difficult and important ever committed to a legislative 
body — which is now happily near its completion. 

Without according to the common judgment, popular sym- 
pathies, and therefore not what would be called a popular man 
with the people, he was nevertheless six times elected to the 
Legislature of Maine; once — in 1840 — elected to this House 
from a district in which his party was in a minority ; and was 
three times elected to the Senate of the United States — in 1851, 
1855, and 1859 — by the unanimous vote of his party in the 
State Legislature, attesting the high appreciation by the people 
of his State of his pre-eminent abilities as a statesman and of 
his sterling qualities as a man. 

As chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate he took 
a leading part in shaping the legislation that provided the 



62 



KEMAKKS OF ME. LYNCH OX 



"sinews of war" during the rebellion, and altbough his natural 
conservatism often led him to hesitate to adopt some of the 
financial measures which the emergency required, his doubts 
always yielded to the necessities of the case, and he maintained 
from the first the right of the Government to adopt any measures 
however arbitrary to preserve its existence. At a most criti- 
cal period of the war, Jidy G, 18G4, after having performed the 
arduous duties of his position in the Senate for nearly eight 
months, worn down with fatigue and suffering from physical 
exhaustion, he was called by President Lincoln to the Cabinet 
as Secretary of the Treasury. And as he expressed himself in 
a letter to a friend at that time: "At whatever risk of health 
or reputation, I am compelled to accept. I dare not take the 
responsibility of declining at such a crisis." 

Making no pretensions as a financier, and having no particu- 
lar policy or theories on the subject of finance, he had what iu 
such a crisis was vastly better than either— a character to 
inspire that confidence which is the soid of credit, and an abid- 
ing faith in the ability and determination of the American peo- 
ple to sustain their Government. With an apparent stagna- 
tion in mibtary movements, the people, heart-sick with "hope 
deferred," an army to be recruited, maintained, and paid ; with 
demands pressing for payment on an empty Treasury, few men 
ever assumed weightier responsibilities, and none ever met such 
more manfully, or discharged them more honestly and success- 
fully. He immediately put himself in communication with the 
capitalists of the country by calling a meeting of bankers at 
New York, stated to them iu a straiglitforward, basiiu'ss-liko 
manner the financial condition and needs of the Government, 
his desire to gather opinions from all sources, and listen to 
advice from any who might offer it. 

Although this meeting tended to strengthen the confidence 
of capitalists in the new Secretary and to improve the national 
credit, as was seen in the immediate decline iu gold, it failed to 
provide the needed funds. His next step was to issue an appeal 



■WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 63 

to the people of the United States, rciuindiug them that it was 
their war; that they had proclaimed it and carried it on thus 
far; that if they now contributed their money to continue it, 
the end was not far distant, as the i-ebels were nearly exhausted. 
If they kept their money for speculations and gold gambling 
they might make larger immediate incomes for the time, but 
they would lose that without which no investments would have 
any value — the prosperity of our institutions and the safety of 
the nation. The response to the appeal was electric. Money, 
which had been locked up, came forth into the market, and the 
wheels of trade began to move again. The press of the country 
seconded the efforts of the Secretary with its powerful influence, 
and the $1200,000,000 authorized by law were speedily poured 
into the Treasury. 

Mr. Fessenden's idea was that the cause could not be gained 
unless the people were determined to gain it, and an appeal to 
their purses would be the shortest road to ascertain the true 
extent of their energies and determination. At the beginning 
of his administration of the Treasury in Julj-, 1864, gold was 
270 to 280. When in March, 1805, he left it to resume his seat 
in the Senate, it had fallen to 198, and the national credit was 
correspondingly improved. I know it is said that financial suc- 
cess during the war depended upon military success, but is it 
not equally true that military success depended upou financial 
success? 

At the period I have referred to the former followed the 
latter. I have dwelt at some length upon this brief period in 
the public life of Mr. Fessenden, because I have always felt 
that the services he so quietly and unostentatiously i-enderedthe 
country at this critical juncture had never been duly appre- 
ciated, and also because it illustrates particularly his most 
valuable traits of character : his comprehensive statesmanship, 
his unselfish patriotism, the readiness and availability of his 
powers in a case of emergency, and his firm, abiding faith in 
the patriotism of the American people. Holding positions in 



gj. KEilARKS OF MK. LTXCn ox 

the Government ■which afforded him great opportunities to 
enrich himself, he was never suspected of prostituting them 
to that purpose. With abilities that would have brought him 
large wealth in his profession, he gave his time to the service 
of his country, and left that service as poor as he entered it. 

I regret to feel that such virtue in a public man calls for 
special commendation. The worst enemy of Mr. Fesscndcn 
never dared question his scrupulous integrity. He was indeed 
God's noblest work, an honest man. He appeared to regard 
with supreme indifference criticisms on his public acts, seldom 
betraying any emotions or taking any pains to correct public 
opinion when he was assailed or his motives misjudged; yet 
he was not unmindful of the apiirobatiou of his fellow-men, 
but was governed by the conviction that it could best be per- 
manently secured by deserving it. 

To say that Mr. Fessenden had no fiiults would be to claim 
for him exemption from the frailties of humanity; but his faults 
were not of the meaner, but of the nobler kind, 

" And ev'n his failings leaned to virtne's side." 

In manner he was cold, reserved, and somewhat aristocratic, 
communing little with his fellow-men. His private life was 
retired and unostentatious. He had but few intimate friends, 
and shrank almost instinctively from that general acquaintance 
and notoriety in which persons differently constituted find 
delight; but for those who did enjoy his confidence and esteem, 
his friendship, though not demonstrative, was strong and en- 
during ; and by such he was admired and beloved, and it was 
difHcult for them to understand how he could be regarded as 
cold and selfish. They saw in the cold exterior and somewhat 
proud reserve a manly independence and a contempt of mean- 
ingless or hypocritical professions, and beneath it a generous 
nature and a warm heart. 

Such, sir, is the man whose life and services we this day com- 
memorate and whose loss we mourn. The nation has few such 



WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. (J^ 



to spare from its couucils. May we emulate liis virtues, and 
so live and serve our country that when we depart we may 
deserve from it the plaudit which is to-day so heartily bestowed 
on our departed friend, " Well done, good and foithful servant." 

Mr. Speaker, I now offer the following resolutions : 

HesoJved, That tbis House has heard with deep sensibility the anuounce- 
nient of the death of Hon. William Pitt Fessenden, a Senator in Congress 
from the State of Maine. 

Iiesolvcd, Th.at as a testimony of respect for the memory of the deceased 
the members and officers of this Honse will wear the usual badge of mourn- 
ing for thirty days. 

licsolrcd, That the proceedings of this House in relation to the death of 
Hon. William Pitt Fessenden be communicated to his family by the Clerk. 

Sesolfcd, That as a further mark of respect for the memory of the de- 
ceased this House do now adjourn. 



REMARKS BY MR. PETERS, OF MAINE. 

Mr. Spealer: I rise to second the resolutions. I cannot lot 
the occasion pass without adding a few words to the record in 
memory of a man for whom I entertained so much respect and 
admiration as I did for the late Senator from Maine. But little 
can be added to what has been said, in the public press and 
public addresses, of the history and character of the statesman 
whose death the people of his own State and the country at 
large at this time so sorrowfully mourn. 

William Pitt Fessenden had a reputation for ability varying 
but little with classes of men, or in periods of time, and it has 
been by .someone truly remarked that the characteristics ex- 
hibited in his congressional life were conspicuously displayed 
by him at the early age of seventeen. In his earliest profes- 
sional and political career he took a place in the front rank of 
eminent public men and ea.sily held it to the end. 

lu his earlier life, and for a long period of time, the practice 
of the law was his delightful avocation. He had a natural 



6G REMARKS OF MR. PETERS OX 

le^al mind. He would have excelled in all respects as a 
Judge, and I have reason to believe that for many years 
he entertained an opinion that it woidd have satisfied his 
tastes and inclination to have occupied a place on the 
bench. 

Until the formation of the present Kcpublican party of 
the country having his associations with the Whig party as 
a coniiieer of George Evans, of Maine, and an admirer and 
close friend of Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, although 
highly esteemed by his Democratic opponents, he found them 
almost always too strong an opposing organization to allow 
hiui to obtain any considerable political place. Portland, 
however, sent him as her local representative to the State 
Legislature, and in the great upheaving of politics in 1S40 
he was elected for a term as a Representative in the Congress 
of the United States. Unfortunately for the old and respect- 
able Whig party, its muniments consisted more in idols than 
in success; and while Mr. Fesseaiden was for many times 
and many years its candidate for United States Senator, it 
was not until the Democratic party in Maine had become 
overthrown upon the issues growing out of slavery that he 
reached that eminent elevation. In this legislative forum 
he seciu'ed for himself a proud and enviable fame. To say 
nothing of the powers of his mind as impressed upon other 
legislation, his report as chairman of the Joint Special Com- 
mittee on Eeconstruction Avill be an enduring monument to 
his memory. Its clear statements, fairness of proposition, 
and sound reasoning swayed the public mind at a critical mo- 
ment in the affairs of our country when we could not see our 
way cleai'ly through the perplexing questions which beset us. 
1 recollect well its powerful effect upon the minds of those 
in my section of the coilntry who were inclined to look upon 
our prospects and situation with dissatisfaction. It was unan- 
swerable. His eloquent friend, Hon. James S. Pike, thus 
well characterizes it : 



WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 



67 



" Mr. Fcsseiulcn's report on reconstruction stands as the ablest political 
tlocument drawn during the war, and if it does not exhibit initiative, it 
displays what is better, namely, a clear comprehension of a wholly novel 
political situation, a masterly interpretation of its phenomena, and a lucid 
exposition of the true method of treatment of a vast and perplexing national 
disorder." 

Although Mr. Fesseudeii in some quarters has been called 
cool and conservative in meeting the issues of peace succeeding 
war, I have abundant reason to believe that at that time he 
would have gone beyond the recommendations of his report, 
and in the direction we have since taken, but for the counsels 
of men esteemed more radical than he that the moment for it 
had not arrived. 

As an advocate or debater Mr. Fessenden's qualities could 
hardly be surpassed. He had clearness, directness, and 
earnestness, impelled by great mental force. His mind 
worked with the smoothness of machinery, without friction 
or chafe ; his perceptions were clear and exact, and so clearly 
did he see the truth or falsehood of almost every proposition, 
that he may have been impatient at times with the workings of 
other minds which moved with less rapidity and thoroughness 
than his own. It was said of an eminent British orator that 
his intellect was all feeling and his feeling all intellect. I 
have often thought of Mr. Fessenden that his feeling was but 
intellect, for when his mind was enkindled to a blaze in the 
cause he advocated, all the qualities of his head and heart 
seemed to conspire to furnish the intellectual and magnetic 
force commanded by him. His style was simple and unstudied, 
Init marked by fine taste. He disliked all attempt at display, 
and had no ear and but little toleration for a person whom the 
great dramatic poet describes as " drawing out the thread of 
his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument;" quick, 
though cool and cautious, and in purpose independent and 
bold. No man gained an advantage of him by personal 
assault ; he would strike upon the weak point of his adversary 
with unerring aim and resistless force. 



68 



r.EMAKKS OF MR. PETEKS 0>' 



One of tlie crowning traits of his character was sterling 
integrity. His actions and motives were clear, transparent; 
his conduct was not based upon a formulary of morals such as 
ill practice would satisfy the requisitions of society and obtain 
the approval of the world, but an absolute and profound love 
of truth was born in him, to which, through a long life, in all 
public and private relations, he most rigidly adhered without 
feeling even a temptation for departure from it. His intellect, 
as well as heart, was honest. He had the unbounded respect 
of all the coiuts within the jurisdiction of which he was known. 
An exchief justice of Maine once told me that Mr. Fesseudeu 
submitted a case at law to the court and argued it with great 
force; afterward, upon reflection, he became doubtfid of the 
value of the proposition he had maintained, and was unwilling 
that he should be considered as abiding by it, and so called up 
the case to qualify the views he had submitted; notwithstand- 
ing which, and aU his fiankness, the comt decided the case 
upon the objectionable point in his favor. 

Mr. Speaker, I shall never forget his internal struggles upon 
the question of impeachment. I saw the deep emotion he felt 
while his friends were urging, if not demanding, his vote for 
the couAiction of Andrew Johnson. I knew his deep consci- 
entiousness on the subject, and you and I very well knew that 
wherever the tendencies of his mind and his deliberate con- 
victions carried him, there, without regard to consequences, 
would he stand forever. It was to him the trying scene of a 
lifetime. No man in Maine, to my knowledge or belief, ever 
deliberately offered to cast any impntation of ilishonesty upon 
his proud name and record for that vote. That it to some 
extent created an alienation of feeling and sentiment toward 
him cannot be denied. What would have been the result of 
such alienation upon the question of his re-election as a 
Senator a year hence was with him a point of the deepest 
interest. His soul seemed agitated to know whether for the 
performance of an act, however distasteful to his friends, but 



WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 69 

dictateil by his couscieuce, he should staud or fall iu the 
estimation of his noble and beloved constituents. 
He was in a position, as the poet hath it, to — 

" Know how sublime a tbing it is 
To suffer and bo strong." 

His nature made him a match for any adversity. And here 
let me say, I have several times since his death noticed in the 
newspapers a statement that in the earlier stages of the con- 
troversy Mr. Fesseudea favored the idea of prosecuting an 
impeachment. Such an assertion is not just to his memory, 
for I know that at all times and under all circumstances he 
was strongly opposed to it upon all the grounds of a wise 
expediency. He has always contended that his aciion as a 
Senator upon that memorable occasion would redound to the 
future honor and prosperity of the Republican party. 

What would have been the personal future of our great and 
beloved Senator had he lived, it is useless now to attempt to 
predict. In the very prime of his usefulness to his State and 
nation he has been taken from us. Maine has lost a son who 
was always to her an idol, and the country has been deprived 
of one of her most illustrious and gifted men. That intelli- 
gent and beaming face, the gentle and modest form, alwajs so 
erect and undaunted in any forum, the winning conversation, 
the charm of simple manners, the magnetic personal presence, 
and the friendly encouragements which so won for him the 
affection of his friends and associates, will be familiar to us no 
more. It becomes hard for me to say of such a man. Farewell ! 



EEMARKS BY MR. BROOKS, OF NEW YORK. 

The more we advance along the pathway of life the more 
deeply do Ave feel occasions of this sort when we are obliged to 
take part in them, for death comes nearer to us, and the shafts 
which hit others will soon hit us. 



70 EEMARKS OF MK. BEOOKS ON 

I first came here into the House of Representatives some 
twenty years ago. On looking al)ont me now, I find that tliere 
are but lour of us left in public life, three of whom are now on 
the floor of this House. One is the honorable gentleman from 
Ohio, [Mr. Schenck,] the chairman of the Committee of Ways 
and Means; another is the chairman of the Committee on 
Commerce, [Mr. Dixon,] and another the chaii'man of the Com- 
mittee on the Public Lands, [Mr. Julian.] Death has struck 
down all, or nearly all who were then in the House of Repre- 
sentatives; and they who have not been stricken down, have 
been more or less removed from public life, and are now hardly 
known to this day or generation. 

Hence do I now feel the more deeply the death of one who 
was not onlj' a contemporary and companion in public life, but 
also a companion in my own early life. Mr. Fessenden was my 
friend, associate, room-mate, and bed-fellow in my early boy- 
hood. I grew up with him in tlie town of Lewiston, then a 
comparatively small and unknown village in Maine, on the 
Androscoggin River, on the frontier of civilization, but now a 
large and populous manufacturing town. He was the teacher 
of the village school there, while I was a boy in a country 
store, acting as clerk in the establishment. He, I think, was 
sixteen or seventeen years of age, a student then in Bowdoin 
college, Maine, and sent forth to teach in the then small village 
of Lewiston, where there were but very few inhabitants, and 
those struggling with the forest and the field, and but little 
given to literature. 

He was some few years older than I, but we were almost the 
only persons in that village at that time who had a love for 
books and who were devoted to literary pursuits. Hence our 
companionship was constant. 

No place is more fitted for the education of a young man for 
iniblic life, or for private life, than the position of teacher of a 
country school. Accustomed there to govern others, a man 
soon learns to govern himself, and thus prepare himself for that 



■WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 7]^ 

public life in which more important even than the government 
of others, is the government of himself. 

Wo studied many books together, some of them not now 
very well known, such as Bigland's History of the World, 
Eollin's Ancient History, then Russell's Modern Europe, or Plu- 
tarch's Lives; aud we read through and through the village 
library, which was deemed magnificent, with its forty or fifty 
volumes. 

We afterward came into competition for public life, though 
belonging to the same political party. He became a lawyer in 
Portland, Maine, and I returned there to act as editor of the 
Portland Advertiser. As young men we were rivals for the 
public favor, aud more or less constantly came into competi- 
tion for that jiublic favor. I represented the town of Portland 
in the Legislature of Maiue some years before he did, although 
younger than he was, and I was a candidate for Congress in 
that district which he afterwards represented in the House of 
Representatives, though it was largelj- democratic, by some 
fifteen hundred or two thousand majority. 

In the rivalry for public life, in that contest of youthful 
ambition, we maintained our social relations with each other ; 
and in the end oiu" ambition was ami)Iy gratified ; if not there, 
elsewhere, in all the honors to which we aspired in our early 
youth. 

I have mentioned these facts in connection with myself, 
though they may seem somewhat personal, in order to excuse 
the deep feeling which I am showing while now paying a 
tribute to the friend and companion of my youthful days and 
my associate afterward in public life. 

We met again in this Capitol ; he, in the other branch of the 
Government, aud I, in this; and though we had been associated 
in political feeling and political principles for many years from 
our boyhood up, we were when we thus met iu public life 
called ujion to part company politically. The father of Mr. 
Fessenden was an earnest Federalist. He was a distinguished 



72 REMARKS OF MR. BROOKS ON 

lawyer of the Stale of Maine, well known throughout New 
England, and occupying the highest position at the bar. His 
father, with his powerful intellect, gradually educated his 
rising son in the principles of the Federal party, in which he 
himself had been trained and in which he had felt such a 
lively interest. When great questions arose here relating to 
the construction of the Constitution and the administration of 
the Government, Mr. Fcssenden naturally acted upon the prin- 
ciples in which ho had been educated, while I followed those 
which I had imbibed. I cherished profound regard for the 
clear rights of the States, while he gave a higher respect 
to the consolidated powers of the Federal Government. 

When Mr. Fcssenden first entered the House of Eepresenta- 
tives as a member, as well as when he took a seat in the 
Senate of the United States, there were great and mighty men 
upon the floor of both Houses of Congress. There were in the 
House such men as McDuCQe, Sergeant, Binney, John Quiucy 
Adams, Wise, Cushing, Peyton, Stanley, Evans, and Fillmore. 
In the Senate there were, or recently had been, such men as 
Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Clayton, Cass, Frelinghnysen, Wright, 
Eives, and Leigh. Whoever met and struggled with those men 
in debate, or in any contest whatever, must have beea equal to 
the occasion or he could not have attained the exalted position 
which Mr. Fcssenden won in both Houses of Congress. 

When this House impeached the late President of the United 
States, I never had a doubt in my own mind what course Mr. 
Fcssenden would pursue. Many of my colleagues here will 
remember that on repeated occasions I said to them, "There 
can be no earthly doubt as to the vote of Mr. Fcssenden." I 
knew his devotion to principle as a lawyer ; I knew that he 
would look at the question, not as a politician, not as a states- 
man, not as a public man, but as a lawyer and a jurist, and I 
never doubted what his decision as a judge would be. And, 
sir, his vote upon that question is an act of -which his party 
ought to forgive him ; for, in my judgment, the failure of im- 



■WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 73 

peiiclimeut saved bis party from defeat aud destructiou. As a 
mere party man I always desired the success of the impeach- 
meut project, though as a public man I shrank Mdtb horror 
from the fatal precedent. If impeachment had been success- 
ful, aud the then incoming President had been called on to dis- 
tribute the patronage aud power of this Government, who 
could have foreseen the amount of disappointment and bad 
feeliug among the members of the party now in power that 
woidd have been the result of that distribution of patronage 
prior to a presidential election? And if impeachment had 
been successful the action of the Democratic party in its 
nominations Mould have been different. With all our devo- 
tion to intellect, with all the love of the Democratic party 
for its first and foremost men, it would have been neces- 
saiy and wise for us under such circuui stances to select 
some John Doe or Eichard Eoe who might have won a 
success which the distinguished presidential nominee of our 
party failed to secure. Hence, I say that, in my judgment, 
Mr. Fessenden rendered high service to his party by voting 
"no" as a judge, and by thus relieving them from the embar- 
rassing position in which they had been placed by the House. 
Mr. Fessenden's leau ideal of a Senator was well illustrated 
by the honorable gentleman from the Portland district, Maine, 
in the extract he read from a speech he made. His unflinch- 
ing devotion to duty, his love of independence, his fearless- 
ness, his determination to do his duty — no matter what be- 
came of himself ijersonally — without regard to anything that 
might affect him, we have all seen in his action on this im- 
peachment case. We have also seen that the independence 
which he manifested there amid trial and temptation, he mani- 
fested throughout his entire life. 

Mj' honorable friend from Portland, Maine, in the course of 
his beautiful eulogy, took occasion to say that Mr. Fessenden 
was not eloquent. In that I differ from him entirely. Elo- 
quence, sir, is not mere words. Eloquence is not the pompous 



10 



KEMAEKS OF ME. DAWES >f 



parade of speech. Eloquence is not emphasis, ejaculation, ges- 
ticnlatiou, or intonation. The orator is not he who can roll ofif 
jicriods on sesquipedalian words, or emblazon feeble tliought 
in brilliant rhetoric ; but it is he whose mind most powerfully 
gras^js ideas, and with unerring logic, pours them forth in littiug 
words to the public ear. He who can do that is really an elo- 
quent man; and in that respect, sir, no man was more eloquent 
than I\Ir. Fessenden. 

]\Ir. Speaker, the great characteristic of Mr. Fessenden was 
his individuality, his fearless individuality. He went with his 
party when he thought it was right, and nothing on earth 
could induce him to go with his party when he thought it was 
wrong. No screws of party, no pressure of caucus, no outcry 
of the public press, no thundering denunciations of the mob, 
ever affected his conscience or moved him in the least from 
what he believed his duty to his country ; and I commend that 
independence, that individuality, to all the public men of this 
day, for it is iu that alone they may hope to secure abiding fame 
as public men. We, who are here to-day iu mere party strug- 
gles, will pass away and soon be forgotten if that is all we leave 
behind. Let us therefore endeavor to leave such honest 
records behind us as those of Mr. Fessenden, who has be- 
queathed a name to posterity, as well as to his children, which 
shines as bright as the stars in heaven. 



REMAKKS OF MR. DAWES, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mr, Spcalcer : The biography of Mr. Fessenden has been 
spoken in fitting terms, and nothing can be added to the elo- 
quent words of tribute to his talents and worth which have al- 
ready fallen from other lips. And yet I would like very brieflj- 
to give utterance to the feelings of personal as well as public 
loss with which his death has burdened me. I cannot forget 
on this occasion that he gave me his hand at the door upon my 



"n^ILLIAM PITT FESSENBEN. 75 

entrance into public life, and that bis welcome ripened into a 
personal friendsbip, whicb, bowever widely we sometimes dif- 
fered, uevertbeless suffered no abatement wbile be lived. And 
upon bis bier to-day I lay tbe offering of a stricken friend. 

Mr. Fessenden came to tbe public service first in tbis House 
for a single term; many years before I met bim bere, tbeu a 
young man of growing fame and toward wbose future tbe ex- 
pectations of bis friends turned witb pride and confidence. It 
was as early as 1841, wbile the great statesmen of tbe past gen- 
eration were still bolding imperious sway in these halls and 
were at tbe zenith of their fonie and influence. He came amon g 
them, however, with a mind so well disciplined by early study 
and professional training as well as public service in his own 
State as to be able at once to take tbe foremost rank as a de- 
bater even upon that arena, and to make room for himself 
where the .strongest stood. He left tbe House of Eepreseuta- 
tives at the end of a single term to return to the chosen pro- 
fession of his life, with a reputation established for clearness of 
perception, accuracy of statement, and power of argument 
hardly equalled even then by any of his compeers. The next 
ten years of bis life, devoted to bis profession with signal suc- 
cess at the bar of bis native State, taking rank and leadership 
among those who bad rendered that bar illustrious, was never- 
theless a constant, though, perhaps, unconscious preparation 
for that greater work to whicb he seemed called on his return 
to the Senate in 1853, and in which, with tbe exception of the 
few months be was Secretary of the Treasury, was spent the 
remainder of his strength and life. 

His senatorial career covered tbe most eventful period in the 
history of the nation. About bim and before his eyes began 
and were matured those plots for the dismemberment of the 
Eepnblic whicb eventually drenched the land in blood. Trea- 
son reared its bead in the Senate Chamber, and stalked out of 
the open door witb the torch of war in its hand. Firm hands 
and stout hearts and clear beads aloue could stay up against 



76 REMARKS or Mil. DAWES OX 

the assaults of traitors the tottering governmeut. And among 
all upon whose part in that great life struggle we look back 
fl'om the calm and peace of this day, no hands were firmer, no 
heart was stouter, and no head was clearer than his. 

There was no mind in its organism or its culture like his, so 
completely made for antagonism and argument, and trained, 
like the athlete for his work, to constant conflict and wrestling. 
For this reason he seemed to so stand alone among his peers 
that the sphere in which he worked was left to him, few ven- 
turing to dispute his supremacy in it. To this peculiarity of 
mental structure and discipline is attributable much of that 
occasion for criticism to which his course not unfrequeutly gave 
rise. In debate he so hated sophistry that nothing could re- 
strain him from rending it in pieces, no matter whom he 
wounded. Subterfuge and pretense in argument were dealt 
with by him as downright dishonesty and fraud. And some- 
times, thinking he saw these phantoms flitting across the field 
of debate, he would charge indiscriminately upon friend and 
foe, leaving grievous wounds that were long in healing ; and 
yet self-possession, clearness of mental vision, directness and 
aptitude of expression, in short, perfect command of thought 
and language in the most animated debate, were marked char- 
acteristics of his mind. In current debate he had but few if 
any equals. Ho wielded a Damascus blade that never was 
broken and seldom parried. With the coolness and delibera- 
tion of a surgeon with his dissecting knife, he laid bare every 
argument that feU in his way, and never left his subject so long 
as a muscle remained uncloven or a limb nnjointed. 

He had power, also, to touch the tendercst chord and stir 
the deepest fountain by his eloquence if fitting occasion re- 
quired it. Once in debate, all unpremeditated, he was forced 
to speak of his own personal sacrifices in the war, and his 
allusion to one son who had fallen and to another who had 
lost a limb in battle moistened every eye in the Senate Cham- 
ber. And when the late Executive, by an insane attemi)t at 



■WILLIAM riTT FESSENDEN. 



forcible ejectment from office, crowned Ms long and bitter hos- 
tility to that great Minister of War who had organized victory 
out of defeat, and wrested national salvation from the very 
jaws of national dissolution, the defense of Mr. Stanton pro- 
nounced by Mr. Fessenden, without preparation, at midnight 
upon the floor of -the Senate, will live forever. 

Not less conspicuous than the great ability with which he 
grappled those mighty questions born of the war, which 
divided and shook the nation, were the ijainstaking and fidel- 
ity which he brought to the discharge of every oiBcial duty, 
however minute or aiiparently unimportant. In the dull and 
painful drudgery as well as in the attractive and exciting or 
the grave and responsible duties of the statesman, he was 
equally patient and faitliful, performing what each day fell to 
his lot as if it were his specialty. 

To all his work he brought an official and personal integ- 
rity that never for a moment encountered a susijicion or a 
whisper. He trod the devious and doubtful ways of oppor- 
tunity and temptation with unsoiled feet, and moved amid 
corruption and scandal with raiment untarnished. When 
recently his convictions of public duty caused him to sepa- 
rate so widely from political associates and i^ei'sonal friends 
that permanent alienation seemed inevitable, the universal 
tribute to personal integrity which was heard above the 
tempest stilled at last the waves of public indignation, and 
plucked reconciliation from the unrelenting lips of denuncia- 
tion itself. 

At his decease Mr. Fessenden was chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Appropriations in the Senate, and it was in the dis- 
charge of his official duties as such that I last met him. My 
intercourse with him in that capacity has profoundly impressed 
me with the loss the nation has sustained in his death. His 
great familiarity with every detail of his multiplied work, his 
scrupulous care, and, over and pervading all, his fearless in- 
tegrity, were qualities it is not easy to supply. 



7S REMARKSOFlIR.nALEON 

I have not spoken of any great public measure with whieh 
the name of Mr. Fessendeu is identified. In the grand rebuild- 
ing of the national structure upon the ashes of the rebellion 
he worked faithfully and wisely. But if he originated less, he 
fashioned more. Me^isures which others iutroduced lost none 
of their inherent value under his molding and polishing hand; 
and no blot or blemish, no flaw or failure, can be traced to his 
folly. 

Of the great statesmen who have finished their work and 
departed, Mr. Fessenden will stand alone in history. The 
proud niche his name and fame will fill was made by and for 
himself, and no one can reach or occupy it with him. Such 
was the stmcture of his mind and such his habits of thought 
and work that he could not always co-operate with others. 
That liberty of independent thought and action which he 
always asserted iiermits us in this hour to put ou record our 
differences with him and oiir son-ow for their consequences. 
But as "it is the angles of the diamond which give it its 
beauty and its brilliancy," so these differences will not impair 
a just estimate of the life and character of a great statesman 
except it be in the mind of him, the dead unbroken level of 
whose pathway has never led him to experience the " agony 
of a doubt or the luxury of a conviction." 



REMARKS BY MR. HALE, OF MAINE. 

Mr. S^ycnl-cr: I speak as a young man who admired and re- 
vered William Pitt Fessenden. Twelve years ago, when I cast 
my first vote, he was au honored Senator from the State of 
Maine. In that State his life had been passed, and his educa- 
tion and experience had been such as to emineutlj' fit him for 
the high jilace which he then filled. 

He was a graduate of our oldest college, had chosen the 
l)rofession of law, been admitted to practice at an early age, 



WILLIAM PITT PESSENDEN. rn 



and for many years bad given to it his best talent, which had 
carried hiin to the head of the profession in his State. 

His professional life was always marked by the highest 
sense of honor, by a keen sympathy for the poor or oppressed 
suitor, and by a plainly-shown impatience at that pnblic 
clamor which now and then usurps the place of public justice 
and demands a victim without much heed as to the question 
of guilt or innocence. His single term in this House, and his 
longer service in our State Legislature, had prevented his mind 
from running in a purely legal channel, and he stood, by 
natural ability and varied training, the peer of his fellows iu 
the United States Senate. 

Since that time his public life has been open to the view of 
all, and in common with, I suppose, a large majority of men 
who have watched it, I have learned the lesson of respect for 
its excellence. Within the last few years I have enjoyed the 
privilege of his close acquaintance and friendship, and can 
bear earnest testimony to the kindness of heart and gracious- 
ness of manner which made him, to those who knew him best 
the good friend and fascinating companion. I hope to carry 
through my life a green memory of the good counsel and help 
that he always generously gave me. Of his career as a public 
man it is not fitting that I should attempt to speak. It was 
open to inspection from its beginning to its close, and, like the 
broad river which gains new volume with every affluent it 
increased in its force with each year until at last it ended in 
that vast sea whither all humau life Hows. Others who have 
been intimately associated with him in the important legis- 
lation of the last liiteen years, and who can more clearly point 
out the guiding and restraining influence of his mind upou 
that legislation, have spoken in language of full appreciation. 
But I cannot fad to render my tribute of admiration for the 
inflexible spirit of independence that he always displayed in 
maintaining what he believed to be right, refusing to be 
swayed by popular outcry or the fear of party displeasui-e. 



80 



EEMAEKS OF MK. HALE ON 



And this, joined with tlie iibscncc of any overweening desire 
to enforee views simplj^ as his own views, thns preventing him 
from becoming an " impracticable " in politics, made him what 
seems to me as the nearly complete pattern of an American 
legislator. His steadfastness in adhering to a given course 
when both wind and tide were against him, was shown most 
conspicuously iu the impeachment trial. But I have studied 
his life before that event closely enough to see that any one 
well knowing him need not take that instance into the account in 
concluding that Mr. Fcssenden would not be turned from the 
way he believed to be the right way by fear of immediate un- 
popularity. No tempest of voices ever dictated to him who 
should be released to the people and who should be crucified. 
But he who believes that this firmness came from a defiant and 
unsympathetic spirit is, I think, wholly wrong. Mr. Fcssen- 
den understood fully, and talked freely with his friends of the 
burdens and restraints imposed by a political life,, and he 
always strove so to bear himself that no reproach of neglected 
duty could be laid at his door, and that his acts and his 
motives should not be cheapened by the inducements that 
beset the politician. He has portrayed all this in his eulogy 
upon the Honorable Solomon Foot, a Senator from Vermont, 
who died in 1S6G, and whom he respected and loved. 
From his place iu the Senate Chamber he then said : 

" When, Mr. President, a man, however eminent in other jmrsnits, and 
whatever claims he may have to jjublic confidence, becomes a member of 
tliis l)od.v, lie has mnch to learn and much to endure. Little does ho know 
of what ho will have to enconnter. He maj' l»^ well read iu public aflairs, 
but he is unaware of the difficulties which must attend and embarrass every 
effort to render what he may know available and useful. He may be up- 
ri'i-ht iu purpose and strong in the belief of his own intesrity, but he cannot 
even dream of the ordeal to which ho cannot fail to be exposed ; of how 
much courage ho must possess to resist the temptations which daily beset 
him; of that sensitive shrinking from undeserved oensuro which ho must 
learn to control ; of the ever-recurring contest between a natural desire for 
puldie approbation aud a sense of public duty ; of the load of injustice ho 
must be coutent to bear even from those who should bo his friends; the 
imputations on his motives; the sneers and sarcasms of ignorance and 
m.-xlico; all the manifold injuries which jiartisan or private malignity, dis- 



WILLIAM PITT TESSENDEN. gl 

appointed of its oljject, may shower upou Lis uuprotected head. All this, if 
he would retain his integrity, he must learu to bear unmoved, and walk 
steadily onward in the path of public duty, sustained only by the reflection 
that time may do him justice; or, if not, that his individual hopes and 
aspirations, and e\en his name among men, should be of little account to 
him when weighed in the balance against the welfare of a people of whose 
destiny he is a constituted guardian and defender." 

As I read these words the form of the dead statesman rises 
before me ; I behokl him iu his place in the Senate Chamber, 
presenting the matured result of his thought and investiga- 
tion, or casting his vote uninfluenced by any consideration 
whether he was for the time in the majority or minority; or 
again I listen to his voice when, besieged by importunate 
supplicants for political influence or political place, his stern 
rebuke broke down the brazen front of the man who sought to 
put his own advancement higher than the good of the public 
service ; and when I interpret this loftiness by the light of the 
words that he uttered at the grave of the friend whom he loved, 
I know that he was not just because his nature was cold, and 
that he did not hate demagogues because he had no sympathy 
with the people, but that his ideal of the Senator was so high, 
and he so loyally .#rove to reach it, that his course carried him 
over all the pain and heartsickness which he often felt when the 
Ijeople murmured and friends grew estranged. 

But he went in quest of no popularity that had to be bought 
by time-serving, and never kept himself before the people by 
eccentric courses and dangerous experiments in legislation. It 
was not of such as he that Dryden wrote — 

" A daring pilot in extremity ; 
Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high 
Ho sought the storm, but for a calm unfit 
Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit." 

He had no such ambition for leadership that for its sake he 
would bring the Eepublic nigh to final shipwreck. 

Mr. Speaker, our own State mourns an honored son and the 
nation has lost a tried and faithful public servant. Those who 
have for years taken part in our national Government will miss 



11 



82 REMARKS OF MR. HALE. 

the leader who was yet the comrade in this, that he took upon 
himself his full share of the bnrdeu and work of the day. 

But to the young men who are just entering public life the 
de])rivation is even greater. That life with its temptations and 
seducements is all before us. There are tricks and shams and 
intimidations that are set as pitfalls in our paths. With much 
that is noble and inspiring about us, there are manifold incli- 
nations to sloth, to fickleness, and it may be to corruption. 
Who can tell whether he has not already set his feet in the way 
that leads down to moral death ? We need the tones of that 
voice which never directed the coward's retreat, the splendid 
calm of that clear face that kept its serenity when the battle 
aroimd him was at its thickest; we need the actual sight of 
and association Avith him and all such as he was, who by exam- 
ple and precept elevate our aims, establish our character, and 
make us truly public servants for the public good. And for 
him who, connected with public affairs, seeks to build up an 
honorable reputation, what better course can be given than to 
emulate the steadfastness, the sobriety, the justice of William 
Pitt Fessenden ? 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 



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